Niall lets out a low laugh that’s not meant to be funny, and a chill runs down my spine. “You saw me walk in with her and sent the drink over anyway. I don’t know what the hell you’re trying to prove, but touch her again, and I’ll end you, you feckin’ aresehole.” Niall takes a step forward, now almost chest to chest with Bryce, his eyes wild with untamed fury as he shoves him hard in the center of his chest.
Panicked that this is about to end up in a pissing contest, I hold up one hand and pull on Niall’s with the other. I should be irritated he doesn’t think I can handle this on my own, but some deep-rooted part of me is turned on by his desire to protect me.
“It’s not worth it,” I whisper in his ear.
Bryce scrambles to his feet and spits on the ground in front of him. “This isn’t over, Mackay.” Giving me one last glare, he disappears around the corner.
We stand there in silence until Niall turns and touches my cheek with fire in his eyes. “Did he touch you?”
“It’s fine, I—”
His jaw tightens with every word. “Did. He. Touch. You?”
“No,” I admit, the sexual electricity between us almost too much to take. His stare is heated, and if I hold it too long, I’ll get lost in it forever. “Well, thanks for tonight, Niall, I—”
An impending storm of rage flashes through his eyes as he palms my cheek and claims my mouth in a heated kiss. I’ve wanted him to kiss me again for so long, but for some reason, the guilt of everything is eating at me. I push the nagging remorse down and for half a heartbeat, we stand there, tongues clashing and fingers tugging at each other’s hair before I finally come to my senses and pull away.
“I need to… This is… I need to go home, Niall.”
A half smile plays on his lips as he caresses my cheek, leaving one last lingering kiss on the corner of my mouth. “I’ll walk you.”
The whole way back to my apartment, the sexual chemistry is blinding. Niall is affectionate and attentive, and I battle back and forth between giving in and ending the lie right now.
The minute we reach the door to my apartment, Niall braces a hand on each side of the doorframe and boxes me in. “Sophie is at a sleepover with a neighbor tonight.”
I smile and eye him curiously. “Are you flirting with me, Mackay?”
His face flushes, but I know the minute his eyes darken, it’s not embarrassment staining the skin above his beard. “No, I was flirting with you back at the bar. Now, I’m propositioning you.”
He looks so sure of himself that it unnerves me. “Well, that’s blunt.”
His voice rumbles as he crowds me against the door. “Aye. When there’s something right in front of me I know I want, I see no reason to mince words.” Taking a step closer, he presses his body against me, and every nerve ending blazes with electricity. “What do you want, Laken?”
There’s a right answer and a wrong answer here. One that’s responsible and one that serves my own selfish, horny needs. “You,” I whisper on a breathy exhale.
With my back pressed up against my door, Niall smiles a devilish grin that causes that adorable dimple to sink deep into his cheek, and I can almost believe our lie is real—that there’s emotion behind the heat in his eyes, and he feels something for me. I bite my lip, realizing I’m in over my head. The line between fake fiancée and reality has blurred so much that I can’t see this for what it really is—just simple drunken lust.
Then he kisses me again, and I lose all concept of right and wrong. I can’t think. I can barely breathe. Niall Mackay’s kisses are as hypnotic as his accent, and combined, they flip my world inside out and upside down. The roughness of his assault and the way he commands control of my lips drown me. I’m quickly losing every reservation I have against inviting him inside.
Finally breaking the kiss, Niall pulls back and cups my cheek. “Is Preston coming home tonight?”
Who?
Oh fuck! Panic squeezes my heart, so I say the first thing that comes to my mind. “Preston is spending the night at a friend’s house too.”
Technically, it’s not a lie. Technically, Lollie is a friend, and technically, she lives at the Hammerle estate where technically, Preston lives as well.
Also? Technically, I’m full of shit.
“I’m not an exhibitionist, Laken, but if you don’t open the door, your neighbors are going to get to know a whole new side of you.” Although he laughs, there’s a darkness in his stare that has my palms pressing flat against the wood and my fingers twitching with restraint.
And this is where I break my neck trying to open the door.
Digging blindly in my purse for my keys, I close my hand around the bundle of metal clanging together. Finally finding the right key, I jab it into the lock a few times before it finally fits, and I sigh with relief when it turns. I can hear Niall breathing heavily behind me, and the only thing on my mind is what he’s going to sound like on top of me. Even the thought has my palms sweating as I hurry to push the door open.
Then it hits me.
I’m supposed to be a single mom. There’s supposed to be a kid living here with toys and shit a six-year-old boy would like. Not the last six issues of Vogue and the complete box set collection of Sex and The City.
“I don’t think—”
“That’s the problem,” Niall growls, his accent growing heavy with desire. “You think too much. Way too feckin’ much.” Before I can object, he snakes a hand around me and turns the doorknob.
The minute I fall backward into my apartment, I lose my hold on all reservations as well as my sanity. I’m doing this. I am so doing this. Screw morals, screw what’s right. Go ahead and call me every name in the book for my deception, or bending of the truth, or whatever the hell you want to label it. Tonight, I’m going to be immoral as fuck. I’ll worry about the consequences tomorrow.
Holding a finger against his lips, I shake my head and take a deep breath. “One second.”
“What the hell for?”
My anxiety heightens as out of the corner of my eye, I see Shelby’s bedroom door standing wide open. Anatomy diagram posters, framed certificates, and awards hang on the walls like a shining beacon to my lies. My gait falters as more broken lies tumble from my mouth.
“Didn’t clean. Shit everywhere. Be right back.” Running toward Shelby’s door, I lock it from the inside, slam it closed, and give it a quick tug to ensure no one can get inside. I know Shelby has a shift at the hospital until six a.m., so there’s no chance of her showing up and shitting all over my parade.
I barely turn around when Niall fists my hair and gives it a firm tug backward. His lips are on me before I can react, and my mind blanks. It’s frantic. It’s hot. It’s about to happen right here against Shelby’s door if we don’t move.
“Bedroom,” I mumble against his lips.
As soon as we stumble through the door into my room, Niall kicks it closed, and our hands and mouths are everywhere. One minute I’m facing the door, and half a heartbeat later, he’s spinning me around and slamming me so hard against it all the air rushes out of my lungs. Entwining our fingers, he lifts my arms over my head and pins them against the wood. He’s holding me immobile, and I pause, expecting his dominance to trigger my fight or flight instinct to rear its ugly head. Instead, all it does is amp up my already explosive desire, and I press myself harder against his rigid body.
“Christ, Laken,” he mumbles against my lips. “I’m feckin’ tasting every inch of you tonight.” Reaching behind him with one hand, he pulls his T-shirt over his head and tosses it aside.
I swallow hard as I roam my eyes down his body. His chest is hard and defined. It’s beautiful, and I want it pressed against me in the worst way. Not waiting for a response, he dives his tongue deep between my lips again, tangling mercilessly with mine as we both fight for air.
I have no idea what I’m doing.
That’s a lie. I know exactly what I’m doing, and I have no intention of stopping. What I don’t know is why
that little voice inside me that normally stops me from being impulsive and irrational isn’t screaming at me in her usual shrill voice to start thinking with my head instead of my hormones.
I’m not used to casual sex. Hell, I’m not used to sex period. If I got laid on a regular basis, maybe I wouldn’t be pushed up against my bedroom door like a starving dog in heat and could think clearly.
Niall wraps his hands around my face and stares at me. My stomach flips, and I feel a level of exposure I’m not sure I’m comfortable with, so I lower my gaze to the floor. He stops me, his grip on my cheeks tightening as he lifts my chin.
“What’s holding you back, Laken?”
“I don’t know. Before, it was… It was all pretend. Here, with you and me like this? This is real. You’re real. What we’re doing is real. We can’t uncross this line once it’s crossed.”
There it is. What’s been bothering me since we left the bar. Once we have sex with this lie between us, the game changes. It will no longer be as simple as handing the ring back to him and walking away at the end of the night.
What happens when the clock strikes twelve? Is Cinderella left with only one shoe and memories of one really amazing night, or does she get the prince, the mice, the job, and the corner office?
Spreading his thumbs across my cheekbones, Niall runs his nose from my ear down the slope of my neck, his hot breath igniting an inferno that has been building all night. Placing a light kiss at the base of my throat, he brings my face against his until our noses touch. “I want to cross every line with you, Laken. It’s time to drop all the bullshite. Just us and a question.”
“I’ve already said I’d fake marry you. What other question could you have?”
Niall lowers his hold and stares at me, his jaw twitching and heat glinting in his amber eyes. “Well, if we’re going to have a fake engagement, then I figure we should be able to bypass the fake marriage and get to the fake honeymoon.”
“I still don’t hear a question in there.”
“My mistake. Let’s make this official.” Tugging my hips hard against him, he grinds his thick erection into me while whispering against my lips. “Do you, Laken Cavanaugh, want me to have you right here? To drive my cock so deep into you that you feel me for days afterward? To take you right here against this door so hard you won’t be able to walk through one again without screaming my name?”
Oh, hell yes, please. All that and more.
I whimper as he shoves a knee between my legs and pins me harder against the door. “I’m sorry, Miss Cavanaugh. Could you speak up? You seem to have lost that smart arse mouth.”
“Yeah. I mean, I do. I will. Mmmhmm.”
And that is the exact opposite of how to talk dirty to your man. I promise you, in my head, all sorts of naughty phrases like, “give it to me,” or “my pussy aches for you,” roll through my mind. But me being me, what comes out instead? Yeah and Mmmhmm.
“Well,” he says, grabbing the back of my thigh and hitching my leg around his waist. “By the power vested in me by the fact that I’m two seconds away from ripping off that tiny scrap of lace you call panties, I now pronounce us about to fuck like animals. You may now kiss the man who’s going to make you come harder than you’ve ever come in your life.”
“I, uh—” I swallow the rest of my words as Niall crushes his lips to mine.
Men, if you want to shut a woman up, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it. Telling her to shut up? Wrong way. Absolutely the wrong way, and nine times out of ten, you should probably sleep with your hand over your dick. Quieting her with a passionate kiss that curls her toes and makes her forget her own name? That’s going to end happily for both of you.
Trust me on this.
Alcohol swims through my veins and as his one hand holds my thigh tight on his hip, his other snakes under my dress. I gasp as he runs a finger down my panties, circling the damp fabric.
I know I said it has technically been a while since I’ve had sex, but it’s not like you forget the mechanics of how it’s done. You especially don’t forget how the tease of a hand can send your mind racing over to the other side of crazy. And that’s how Niall Mackay makes me feel. Certifiably crazy. Like losing my hold on reality and skydiving without a parachute kind of crazy.
Niall groans my name, his kisses growing harder and more forceful. I have no idea what has come over me to egg him on like this, but he has pushed me past the point of thinking this through. All I can think of is having the cock that’s pulsing against my stomach lodged deep inside me.
As he grazes his teeth down my throat, I somehow manage to find my voice. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
His eyes widen as he lifts his head, and a wicked smirk curves his lips. He doesn’t answer me, only slips his finger underneath the edge of my panties and presses it lightly over my clit. Sparks shoot across my field of vision. Groaning, I push against him, wanting him to touch me more than I’ve wanted anything in a long time. With a chuckle, he makes a light pass over my clit again, circling it with the tip of his finger, and before I have a chance to protest, he slides it down my wetness and drives it inside.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
As he finds his rhythm, he adds a second finger and returns attention to my throbbing clit with his thumb. I’m now clawing the door and riding his hand as pure heat incinerates me from the inside out. The minute he leans down and sucks my breast through the thin fabric of my dress, incoherent babble falls from my mouth. Honestly, I’m not even sure I’m speaking English as the voodoo he’s working causes a thunderous orgasm to buckle my knees and shatter my world. Crying out his name, I slump against him and bury my forehead into his chest.
“Jesus!” I pant.
Releasing my leg, Niall hooks a finger underneath my chin and forces my eyes on his. Once he’s satisfied I’m focused on his hooded gaze, he takes his finger and sucks it deep into his mouth, swirling his tongue around it, approval rumbling deep in his throat.
“Feckin’ delicious. Just like I thought.”
Something dark shifts in his eyes, and my lips part. Not sure how much more I can take, I plead with him. “Niall…”
Removing his finger from his mouth, he traces it across my own lips as he fists my hair with his other hand. Involuntarily, my tongue darts out before my lips close around his finger. If he weren’t holding me, I’d probably drop to the floor.
Stepping back, he reaches in his pocket and pulls out a foil packet and holds it up between us. “You do it.”
“Um, what?”
“Touch me, Laken. I want your hands on me.”
He doesn’t have to ask me twice. I’m primed and ready for him. Reaching between us, I unhook his belt, shocked to see my hands are steady and not at all shaking. Emboldened by my own assuredness, I make quick work of his zipper and push down his jeans, gasping as my hand touches his hot length.
He’s huge. I don’t mean, “Oh, wow, that’s going to feel nice,” huge. I mean, “Holy fuck, the man should bronze it and hang a picture frame around it,” huge.
I must be staring because an impatient groan tears from his throat. “Laken…” Quickly rolling the condom on, I barely have time to look up before he slams my back against the door and, reaching under my dress again, rips the flimsy string holding my panties together. “Wrap your legs around my waist,” he commands hotly in my ear.
Obeying, I hook my legs around him, and his fingers dig into the flesh of my ass. Rearing back, he gives a sharp thrust upward. A tiny squeak slips out, and that’s all I manage before he pulls out and drives back in, repeating the move over and over until I’m about to lose my mind. Our combined groans along with the sound of skin slapping are the only things I hear beyond the unforgiving wood slamming against my spine.
Niall fucks like a man possessed, alternating punishing thrusts with smooth, long plunges. Sweat drips down my brow, and I feel my muscles clench around him.
“Niall! I’m coming again!”
�
�Do it. Come, baby,” he growls in his deep Irish accent, his teeth sinking hard into my shoulder.
Screaming, I stiffen as my orgasm rips through me with a relentless intensity that rocks me until I don’t even know my own name and the only one on my tongue is his. Niall powers inside me, spurring aftershocks that cause another round of spasms.
“Christ!” He lets out a tortured groan into the hollow of my neck and jerks inside me, bottoming out as his thrusts slow and eventually still.
Coming down from the high, I suddenly feel awkward. What we just did complicated an already bizarre situation. How can we walk away from each other now? How the hell will it be possible to stage a public breakup and still work together after this?
Millions of questions float through my head as Niall shifts our bodies, still buried deep inside me, and heads toward my bed.
“Where are we going?” I ask, confused as to why he’s not getting dressed and leaving.
He chuckles as he lowers us both to the bed and climbs over me. “If you think the honeymoon’s over, Mrs. Mackay, you need to brush up on your rom coms.”
“But…”
That’s the last word I speak as Niall begins a heated trail of kisses down my stomach, and the minute he finds his destination, my world explodes for the third time.
9
Niall
The ruse is over.
It stopped the minute she scraped her nails down my back and screamed my name. The sun is barely peeking through the blinds in her apartment as her bare arse presses up against me. We’re entwined, spooned together, her back to my front, completely naked in her bed, and for the first time in my life, I’m not panicking. I don’t have the insatiable urge to disappear before she wakes up or leave cab fare on the dresser while I spend the morning drinking coffee at Starbucks until she gets the hint I’m not coming back.
It scares me how right this feels. When I said the vows to Laken last night, part of me meant them. Some deep and crazy mental part of me wanted to pretend they were real. That maybe I’d wake up this morning and they wouldn’t have been just words said during amazing sex.
Vote Then Read: Volume I Page 62