She swallowed and pulled herself together, lowering her voice so the neighbors wouldn’t hear her screaming. “I’m hanging on by a thread here. You’ve made me feel things I never expected to feel again. When you kiss me, my brain scrambles the same way it did ten years ago. I hate how weak I am with you.”
“April…”
She shook her head. “No. Let me speak. You had your chance a decade ago, and you forfeited it. Now, it’s my turn.”
“Okay,” he whispered. “You’re right.”
“Ugh.” She stomped her foot and spun around, heading for her bedroom.
He followed her.
She yanked off her heels and tossed them toward the closet. She wanted to get out of this dress and into something more comfortable, but he was hovering in her doorway. “April…”
She spun around and faced him. “I’m probably making a huge mistake here, letting you back into my life. In fact, I know I am. You’re here for one fucking week. Five more days. And then you’re going to go back to California and go on with your life fighting bad guys in foreign countries. Even if you left my apartment right now and never looked back, the damage would be tremendous.”
She lifted a finger and pointed it at him, needing to get this all out. “You’re going to hurt me again. I don’t even know if I can survive it this time. I thought if I kept you at arm’s length, I could keep my heart out of it. But I was lying to myself. You hit every damn trigger in me just by standing in the room.”
“Ladybug…” He stepped closer.
“No. I’m not done. Stay where you are.”
He stopped advancing and tucked his fingers in the front pockets of his suit pants. He looked so fucking amazing in that damn suit with the tie and dress shoes. She had wondered if he would wear his uniform, but he hadn’t. That might have been worse. Sexier.
“I’m sorry, ladybug.” His voice was soft. “You’re right. Get it all out. I deserve it.”
“Ugh,” she shouted again. “Why do you have to be so fucking nice while I’m mad at you?”
He lowered his head. She could see his chest rising and falling with every breath. She was getting to him.
She sighed and tried to relax her body, taking a deep breath. “The sad thing is I’m not even going to fight it because I can’t, and I don’t want to. I’m yours. I’ve always been yours. No one will ever make me feel the way you do. So, I ask myself which would be worse? Having you for five days or telling you to get the fuck out?”
She watched him flinch, but he said nothing.
“There’s no contest. I’d rather have every second I can have with you, even if it means I never recover from it. I’ll take five days in your arms over nothing.”
He jerked his gaze back to hers. “It doesn’t have to be that way, April.”
She chuckled sarcastically. “Really? You have a magic wand?”
“Come back with me. Move to San Diego.”
She flinched, taking a few steps backward until she ran into the edge of her bed. “You can’t be serious.”
“Totally serious.”
She shook her head slowly. “Cole, that’s crazy. I have a life here, and we hardly know each other, and I would never trust you not to hurt me again.” Her voice trailed off.
His breath hitched. “You said yourself you hate your job. I can tell you’re not fully living. And it’s not true that we don’t know each other. We’re the same people we were ten years ago. You know me better than anyone alive.” His voice lowered and he took a step toward her. “Let me earn your trust back, ladybug. Please. It breaks my heart to know I hurt you so badly.”
She jerked her gaze to his. “What the hell did you think would happen when you disappeared on me?”
He drew in a deep breath. “I made a mistake.”
“You think?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize… Fuck. It doesn’t matter what I thought. What matters is that I’m here now and I’ve missed you every day. I’m begging you to give me another chance.” He had inched closer with every word, and now he reached out and smoothed his hands up her arms.
When he leaned in and set his forehead against hers, she sucked in a sharp breath. The man had so much power over her.
“Please?”
She licked her lips. “I’m not making any promises that extend past five days, Cole. I can’t and I won’t. But I’m yours until you leave because I don’t have the strength to turn you down.”
He leaned back, his eyes warm, a smile growing.
She reached behind her, lowered the zipper on her dress, and let it fall to the floor. She shivered as she stood in front of him in nothing but the black lace panty-and-bra set she’d put on that morning. Had she known it would come to this later in the day? Probably.
“Jesus, ladybug.” He took a step back, his hands still on her shoulders. “You’re so fucking sexy. I thought you were the hottest woman alive the first time I saw you naked, but you’ve gotten even hotter since then.”
She flattened her hands on his chest and smoothed them up to his tie, tugging on it as she spoke. “You have too. You’re two times larger I think, and high school football didn’t put nearly as many muscles on you as the Navy.” She pulled his tie free and went to work on the buttons of his dress shirt. She honestly couldn’t wait to flatten her hands on his chest. She needed to feel him. All of him.
He slid his hands to her waist, the spread of his fingers seeming to skim both the undersides of her breasts as well as the edge of her panties. Before he had a chance to explore further, she was tugging his shirt down his arms, forcing him to let go.
“Lose the pants too, Cole,” she ordered. “I want to watch.” She crawled up onto the bed backward as she watched, leaning on her elbows.
He never took his gaze off her as he removed everything but his underwear. And she nearly died when he tucked his hands in the elastic at the waist and lowered those too.
God… His cock. Had it been that large too?
She licked her lips as she watched him stroke it from base to tip, precome gathering in the slit. “Jesus, Cole. I’m pretty sure every part of you is larger.”
He chuckled as he climbed over her, parting her thighs and kissing his way up her legs.
She dropped onto her back, unable to hold herself aloft as his mouth worked its magic on her inner thighs, and then skipped her soaking core to tease her stomach next.
By the time his lips were trailing along the top edge of her bra, she was panting. She finally got to plant her hands on his chest, and she couldn’t stop touching him. Everywhere. As if he might disappear soon and she needed to feel all of him before he vanished.
When his mouth found hers, he changed to a frantic pace, deepening the kiss immediately. His palms slid down her arms until he tugged her hands away from his body. He threaded their fingers together, stretched her arms over her head, and pressed their combined palms into the pillow.
The act of dominance made her moan. This was something new. He’d been the most amazing lover in the world ten years ago, but that was the high school version of Cole, a man with no more experiences than the ones he’d had with her.
His cock pressed against her pussy, making her eyes roll back. She had to break free of his lips because she was growing light-headed from lack of oxygen. She tipped her head back. “Cole…”
He chuckled as he nibbled a path to her ear, just like he always had. When his lips tickled her lobe, she moaned. It was amazing how hot this man could make her with a simple touch to her earlobe. “God, I love that sound,” he whispered into her ear. “I missed that more than anything.”
For a moment she let her mind wander to the forbidden, wondering how many women had moaned for him in the last ten years. The man was so tempting, and April knew he was a kind and generous lover. Surely there was a long list of women who’d experienced his kind of lovemaking and been left to pick up the pieces.
She shook the jealous thoughts away as his lips trailed to her cleavage again,
and she arched on a gasp when he dipped his tongue under the edge of the lace to flick her nipple.
He lifted his face a moment later and stared down at her, pressing her hands into the pillow. “Leave your hands here, ladybug. I need to see all of you.” He slid his palms under her and deftly released her bra. His gaze was intense as he eased it off her arms, revealing her breasts.
She shivered. There was something so hot about being commanded to keep her hands above her head. Her nipples were already stiff peaks from the minimal contact he’d had with them.
His gaze roamed over her chest reverently before he finally cupped her breasts in his hands and grazed his thumbs over her nipples.
She arched up, moaning at the simple contact. He was so totally going to ruin her, whatever part of her had remained after he’d left her the first time.
When he finally molded his palms to her breasts, he whispered, “These were always one of my favorite parts of you, but my God, April, they’re so much fuller and sexier and tempting.” He lowered his face and sucked a nipple into his mouth, making her cry out, while he squeezed her other breast and lightly pinched the nipple.
She gasped. “Oh, God.” Had it been so long since she’d been with a man that she was easily pushed to the edge, or was Cole just that good at playing her body?
He chuckled. “You like that, huh?” He pinched her nipple again, harder this time.
She jerked her arms down and grabbed his biceps, gripping the bulk of them.
Cole released her breasts and grabbed her wrists, tugging her arms back where he’d told her to leave them. His voice was gravelly when he spoke. “You can’t touch me right now, April. I’ll come before I get inside you.”
She struggled to breathe, blinking at him. “Okay,” she finally whispered because it seemed like he needed confirmation. Every inch of her was on fire now, needier than she could remember ever feeling with him.
“I need to taste you, ladybug.” He pressed her hands into the pillow again as if reminding her. “May I?”
She licked her lips. Was he asking permission to go down on her? She nodded.
He smiled and then kissed his way down her body, pausing to flick his tongue over both nipples before nibbling down to her belly button and then licking under the edge of her panties.
All normal thoughts fled. She was going to come. Perhaps before he set his mouth on her. She was panting, her hands fisted in a tight grip on the pillowcase to remind herself not to remove them as he lowered her panties down her legs so slowly she didn’t think he’d ever finish.
He smoothed his hands from the inside of her knees to her thighs, parting her legs wider and wider until she was gasping at the intimate way he was staring at her pussy. “You keep yourself shaved now,” he commented as he trailed a finger over her naked labia and then circled her clit. He leaned close to rub his cheek against her pussy and groaned. “I like it. Damn, woman, you are so fucking gorgeous.”
She couldn’t respond. In high school, she hadn’t known a thing about grooming. Neither had he, but in the short amount of time he’d permitted her to look her fill at his grown-man cock a moment ago, she’d noticed he’d groomed too.
When he flicked his tongue over her clit, she cried out.
“So responsive,” he whispered, stroking a finger through her folds. “How fast can I make you come?”
She rolled her head from side to side. The answer was seconds.
His mouth lowered again, this time sucking her, thrusting his tongue into her, holding her down with his hands.
He’d gone down on her before, but she didn’t remember it being like this. They’d been young. They’d lacked experience and confidence. Their every move had been tentative and hesitant, always worried they were “doing it wrong.”
This older Cole had no lack of confidence. He devoured her, suckling on her clit in the exact way she craved. And she moaned aloud as she lost all control, unable to stop the orgasm from slamming into her. She wished she could put it off and enjoy the moment longer, but his mouth was relentless, and seconds later, she stiffened as the waves of pleasure washed through her.
Her ears seemed to be underwater, but she knew she was murmuring his name over and over. “Cole… Cole… Cole…”
When she finally floated back to earth, he was smiling at her. “You taste delicious, exactly as I remember.”
She shuddered. “Are you going to let me return the favor?”
He shook his head. “Not a chance. Later maybe. I want to be inside you now.” He slid a finger into her as he spoke, his brows arching when she moaned again, ready for him. Desperate even. “How many times can I make you come, ladybug?”
She met his gaze. “I don’t know.”
He cocked his head to one side, his finger slowly easing in and out of her. “You’re so tight.”
“It’s been a while.”
“I used to be able to make you come at least twice. Can you do more than that now?”
It was hard to focus on anything with his finger tormenting her. “Cole…”
“Tell me, ladybug. I missed ten years with you. I want to rock your world.”
She blinked at him. “Cole… No other man has made me come.”
He froze, his finger deep inside her. For a moment, she thought he might panic, but then a slow smile spread, his eyelids lowered, and he kissed the hood of her clit. “I’ve never been so hard in my life,” he murmured.
A moment later, he froze again and then jerked his gaze up. “Shit. I don’t have a condom. Please tell me you have condoms.”
She shook her head. “No, but I have an IUD.”
He searched her face. “I swear I’m clean. I haven’t been with a woman in six months. I get checked regularly. Do you trust me?”
She nodded. “It’s been even longer for me.” She didn’t feel like telling him how much longer. It was embarrassing that she’d had so few boyfriends and none recent.
“I’ve never had sex without protection,” he murmured as he rose above her, giving her another look at his cock as it bobbed between them. “If I thought I was going to come fast before, I’m not even going to get all the way inside you now.”
She smiled. “You will. And we can always do it again.”
He groaned as he came over her, clasping his hands around her fists. His chest brushed against her nipples, making her arch again. Every inch of her was sensitive.
For long moments, he held her like this, staring into her eyes. It was almost too much. Too intense. But then he thrust into her, taking her breath away. Her eyes rolled back and she moaned.
Cole’s mouth came to her neck and he sucked, nibbled, kissed, and licked his way to her ear, his cock still buried deep. “April…”
When she couldn’t stand how still he was another moment, she bucked her hips upward.
He finally slid partly out and thrust back in, a long moan coming from his lips. “Not…gonna…last…” His grip on her fists tightened, and after a few more thrusts, his entire body went rigid. He yanked one hand down between their bodies and found her clit, rubbing it rapidly.
With his cock buried in her, filling her so fully, she couldn’t stop the wave of pleasure that consumed her.
“Come for me, ladybug. Come again around my cock.”
Her body obeyed his command, her channel pulsing around his erection while she gasped for oxygen.
It was all Cole needed apparently, because he groaned out his own release moments later.
God, she loved the feeling of his body over hers, smothering her. She didn’t care that she could hardly breathe or that she was sweating or that damp sections of hair were plastered to her forehead. She didn’t care if he never moved. She wanted to bask in the weight of him, his scent, the sounds he kept making, the feel of his heartbeat, the taste of him on her tongue for as long as possible.
She’d missed him. Missed this.
And he was going to destroy her again.
Chapter 7
“Uh, Co
le?” she asked him thirty minutes later, lying halfway across his body. He’d flipped them over so he was on his back now with her sprawled over the top of him. She was drawing circles on his chest, and he loved every second of it.
He hadn’t stopped grinning. Never mind that he’d lasted less than two minutes. When he regained his strength, he was going to claim her again. “Yeah?”
“Where are you staying?”
He hesitated. “The hotel on the edge of town.”
“Can you check out? You’re certainly not leaving now.”
He chuckled, the vibrations shaking her on top of him. He ran a hand down her silky hair, loving the feeling of it between his fingers. “I checked out of it this morning when I left for the funeral home. My shit is in my rental car in the parking lot.”
She smiled against him. He couldn’t see her face, but he could feel it. “Cocky.”
“Yeah…”
She lifted her head finally, planting her chin on his pec to meet his gaze. “I need a shower.”
He lifted a brow. “May I join you?”
She grinned. “I was hoping.” She started to rise off of him, but he grabbed her around the waist and hauled her up so he could kiss her senseless again. He loved the way she completely melted under his kisses. The soft noises she made.
She’d changed over the years. She was more filled out. Her eyes spoke of ten years more of maturity. She had more confidence in bed. She was sexier than ever. But so much about her was the same. He remembered her scent. Vanilla and cherries and April. She still made little sounds in his mouth when he kissed her. Her fingers absently gripped his shoulders in a way that told him she had no idea.
When he finally released her, she was dazed. He slid his hand down to her bottom and squeezed. “You start the shower. I’m going to go grab my stuff from the car.”
Hot SEAL, April's Fool Page 6