by Zara Cox
‘Hey. What is it?’ Bryce was frowning down at me.
I shook my head wildly, hating myself for tarnishing this moment. ‘You’re making me wait, Bryce. I hate waiting.’
He laughed, then, with a wicked gleam in his eyes, dipped his head and brashly caught one net-covered nipple between his teeth.
I cried out, the sensation almost too much to bear. Luckily, the intensity of my arousal pushed the fragile thoughts away. Arching my back, I chased after more and he responded, drawing my areola deeper into his mouth and flicking his tongue over the sensitive peak.
The dampness between my thighs intensified, leaving me slicker, hungrier.
‘Bryce!’
Blindly, he reached towards the bedside table, and returned with a condom between his fingers. After another minute torturing my nipple, he rose and shucked off his jeans.
The sight of Bryce tearing open the condom with his teeth was absurdly sexy. All I could do was pant and writhe in anticipation as he dragged the protection over his hard dick, grabbed my hips and jerked my body down the bed. Still on his knees, eyes pinned between my legs, he tugged the lingerie aside. ‘You know this beautiful piece of nothing isn’t going to make it, don’t you?’ he asked a little regretfully.
I shuddered.
He smiled. ‘It turns you on, doesn’t it? The thought of me ripping this thing off you?’ His knuckles dropped between my legs, shamelessly rubbed my engorged clit.
‘Bryce?’
‘Yes, rosebud?’
‘Shut up and do it,’ I commanded, too turned on to play nice.
With unbelievably sexy ease, he caught the neckline of the body and ripped it right down the middle to my crotch. He fell on my breasts, moulding and licking and tasting and biting until I was out of my mind. Then before I’d gathered my next breath, Bryce yanked me lower still, and thrust hard inside me.
My scream ripped through the room, the sensation of being slick enough to accommodate his size and tight enough to feel every inch of him blazing delirium up and down my spine.
‘Holy bloody fuck!’
He held himself deep, head thrown back, the muscles in his neck standing out in straining cords. ‘God, Savvie, you feel so good,’ he groaned.
Need ploughed through me, heightened by the pressure of his groin pressing against my swollen clit and my desperation to feel him move. ‘Fuck me, Bryce.’
After another teeth-grinding moment, he pulled out and slammed back in. ‘With pleasure!’
My eyes rolled, every inch of my body steeped in bliss as he fucked me with a mastery I’d never experienced before.
The last dregs of insecurity retreated. I knew it wasn’t gone, that it would return to attack me, but for now I revelled in Bryce’s every groan, every kick of my heart and every push towards that rarely attained peak of sexual fulfilment.
Even when Bryce’s fingers dug into my hips a little too forcefully, when his thrusts grew frenzied, I welcomed the tinge of pain along with the pleasure because I knew my pleasure was his goal. He’d shown it twice before, selflessly denying himself where others had put their pleasure first.
That fact made me wrap my arms around him, kiss him deeper, throw my hips up to meet his thrust, giving and giving as much as he’d given me.
And yes, doubling our pleasure.
Sweat slicked our bodies from our exertions, the scent of sex wrapping around us in thicker and thicker waves until the decadence of it was unbearably erotic. Until a familiar but altered sensation that whispered that I was nearing my peak startled me.
Usually, I needed more, much more stimulation to get me to this point. Specifically, subtle self-pleasure. The realisation that I didn’t was a shocking but very welcome notion. One that made me gasp with pleasure.
Bryce dropped forward, pressing his hard body into mine, his fingers spiking into my hair. ‘Are you close, Savvie?’ he breathed against my lips.
The extraordinary sensation of an orgasm fuelled by penetrative sex was so unique, I didn’t want to ruin it by talking. My nails dug into his shoulders and I silently urged him on, tightening my internal muscles to increase the pressure around his steel-hard cock.
Bryce’s inhaled sharply. ‘Jesus, how are you doing that?’ he growled as I met his thrusts with faster pumps of my hips.
I secretly thanked the yoga gods for that extra pleasure delivery and was rewarded in spades when, with a series of fast thrusts, he fused his mouth to mine and pushed me that final inch to the peak.
I braced myself on the edge long enough to savour the incredible sensation. Then, unable to hold back, I screamed, wild bliss tearing through me.
Over the roar in my ears, I heard Bryce’s hoarse shout, felt deep convulsions seize his body as he climaxed.
Minutes drifted by as we caught our breaths. Bryce left the bed to get rid of the condom. When he returned he pulled me back into his arms.
In the midst of my thrashing, I’d lost most of the pins in my hair and, after he rolled us sideways, he removed the rest and trailed his fingers through my hair. His lips drifted over my damp shoulder to the shiver-making hollow beneath my ear, his other hand caressing my hip.
‘Truth.’
My heart lurched and I froze because that word, in this space, reeked of nothing but off-limits subjects. ‘I remember someone saying that’s not how the game is played,’ I replied.
He smiled. ‘Taking a leaf out of your book.’
I forced myself to relax. ‘Okay.’
‘You seemed...surprised that you were about to come. Did you think you wouldn’t?’
Heat filled my face and I was glad my skin was dark enough for it not to show. Not that it would’ve mattered.
Bryce saw my discomfort and, of course, compounded it by raising my chin to stare into my face. ‘Tell me, Savvie. You obviously like sex so what am I missing?’
I expelled a breath. ‘I do like sex. I just...usually need a little bit...more.’
He frowned. ‘Explain.’
‘Why? So you can gloat?’
‘If there’s gloating to be done, I will indulge. Right after I express the appropriate sensitive emotion.’ Despite his joke, his eyes were serious, prompting the truth from me.
‘I’ve never come with just penetration,’ I blurted. ‘Not until just now.’
Slowly, a smug smile spread across his face, once again filling my heart even as I rolled my eyes. ‘While I curse all the arseholes who’ve left you high and dry, I’m glad to be the one who did it for you.’
Before the moment could be ruined by dwelling on one particular arsehole, I rolled my eyes again. ‘My turn.’
He kissed me short and hard before he drew back and nodded.
‘What did you mean earlier when you said the fire’s been raging longer than I know?’
He slanted me an assessing look. ‘What do you think I meant?’
I took a breath, willing my thumping heart to slow even as I accepted there was no way to avoid the past. ‘Are you referring to what happened three years ago?’
He gave a laugh that sounded eerily self-deprecating. ‘For someone who’s as clever as her illustrious parents, you’re not very astute, are you, Savvie?’
My lips twisted. ‘I think my parents will disagree with you on that score.’
He nudged me onto my back and raised himself on his elbows to look down at me with a fresh frown. ‘What are you talking about? I know you had some issues with your family but your parents couldn’t wait to flaunt your school report in my face every time I came to dinner.’
‘Yeah, they were good at window dressing.’
His brows pleated. ‘Window dressing? I saw some of those reports myself, Savvie. You were top of your class every year—’
‘And they were good at singing my praises in public but behind closed doors was an entirely different sto
ry, Bryce!’
His eyes narrowed at my outburst and my stomach dropped, knowing he’d heard the anguish in my voice. ‘How?’
‘I don’t really want to talk about it.’ I tried to pull away. His fingers tightened.
‘No, Savannah. Don’t play that card with me. Yeah, I know it wasn’t perfect, but if I’ve been totally hoodwinked I want to know why.’
‘Trust you to make it all about you.’
‘No, it’s not about me. I can see the pain in your eyes and, yes, I want to know if I should be kicking myself for something I missed.’
The anger I’d been scrambling to cover my pain with melted away, and when he pulled me closer, I went. ‘Don’t blame yourself. They were experts at the game.’
His frown deepened but he didn’t push for more. He simply waited me out.
After a minute of furious debate with myself, I sighed. ‘I know you have your issues with your family so you’ll probably know how it feels to wonder if you were born into the right family.’
He stared at me for a few heartbeats before he shook his head. ‘Weird as it may sound, I think I was born exactly where I needed to be. There’s no point wishing for things you can’t change.’
‘Well, in that case you have no clue what I’m talking about but the gist of it is that I’ve felt like a...like I don’t belong for most of my life.’
A puzzled look replaced the frown. ‘But...all the times you invited me home...things were that bad?’
‘Behind closed doors, they didn’t hesitate to point out my deficiencies. And it wasn’t just an ugly-duckling-in-a-sea-of-swans situation. It was more like panda-in-a-tribe-of-gazelles.’
For the longest time he didn’t speak. The look in his eyes was equal parts quiet fury and compassion. ‘Was that why they never came to your show or your wedding?’
Pain lashed me hard. ‘My father threatened to cut me off if I pursued the modelling, and he went through with it. I haven’t spoken to them or Willow in...a while.’
‘Savvie, why didn’t you tell me?’
I shrugged and that little movement hurt more than the retelling warranted. Which said a lot about what I’d bottled up over all the years. ‘You had your own issues going on. You couldn’t get enough of the stories they regaled you with about my Ghanaian heritage, and I didn’t want to spoil the illusion. Not at first. And when I tried to hint at it a few times you missed it. Then I kinda grew okay with it because I liked you being a little jealous of me, for a change.’
His brows spiked. ‘For a change?’
I grimaced. Damn my runaway tongue. If this verbal tsunami was the side effect of sex with Bryce, I wasn’t sure I was up for any more. But even that thought left a bruise. I was well on my way to being addicted to sex with Bryce and no amount of apprehension about baring my deep secrets would stop me experiencing more of him.
‘You were the captain of a rugby team, you had girls falling all over you and you have the Queen listed somewhere on your family tree as a relative. Plus you could go without combing your hair for a month and still look like a damn GQ model. I hated you for a long time before I talked myself into tolerating you.’
He let loose a heart-stopping grin. ‘And how long was this talk? Five...ten seconds?’
I slapped his arm. He gave a short laugh before his expression grew serious. ‘You have a good idea how fucked my family situation is, Savvie. You had no need to be jealous. Not if you knew how hard I worked before you deigned to talk to me.’
It was my turn to frown. ‘What?’
He shrugged. ‘Since we’re telling a few home truths... I didn’t run into you by accident that day at the library. I’d been watching you, knew your routine off the top of my head.’
My mouth dropped open for a few unbecoming seconds. ‘Why?’
‘I said hi to you for a month straight and each time you looked right through me.’
‘Because I thought...’ I stopped, bit my lip, the memory of how off-balance he’d thrown me returning full force.
He nodded. ‘I know what you thought. That because I hung out with meatheads that I was one myself?’
I grasped his lifeline. ‘Something like that. And there was that dating stick-thin girls thing.’
‘I had to pass the time somehow,’ he said drolly.
‘Seriously, what are you saying, Bryce?’
He shook his head. ‘We’re getting off the original subject. Why didn’t you tell me how things were with your family? Besides the jealousy?’
‘Because I was ashamed. Because it hurt. Because I was struggling to understand why they could be loving and respecting of each other but not me. It was like they had membership to a special club I couldn’t join because I wasn’t the right dress size and I despised tofu and politics.’
Mild shock flicked across his face. ‘Savvie—’
I shook my head, on a roll now the dam had cracked. ‘My parents I could understand, maybe. But I didn’t get why Willow hated me so much. She was the most vicious of them.’
‘Is it possible that Willow felt she had to take your parents’ side or get the same treatment from them?’
I frowned, recalling that the very few times when my sister had been less bitchy towards me had been when we were alone. But it didn’t make up for the times she’d piled on me in front of my parents. And the approval inherent in their silence.
‘Either way, it’s on them, not you. You know that, don’t you?’
‘I’m not sure that I do. If I did, I wouldn’t have married Dan.’
His face tightened and I regretted bringing him up.
‘Are we going to fight about him, too?’
Long fingers tunnelled into my hair, toyed with it for a minute before he sighed. ‘No. I don’t want to fight.’
‘What do you want to do?’
He smiled. ‘Totally up to you. I’m in your hands.’
‘How about we head out for a while?’
He groaned and nuzzled closer, making me laugh.
‘I’ll sweeten the deal and promise to wear the leather playsuit when we get back.’
Immediately, his expression brightened. ‘Deal. And I’ll try not to rip it off when I put you on your knees and fuck you from behind.’
With a hard little kiss, he launched himself off the bed and held his hand out to me. I stood up, then stumbled when I went to take a step.
He laughed, the sound brimming with unabashed male satisfaction. ‘That’s it, rosebud, show me how tough it is for you to walk,’ he leaned down to whisper in my ear.
I pushed against his ripped chest. ‘Remember, pride goes before a fall, champ.’
‘We’ll see.’ He stepped behind me and slapped my bottom. ‘Now get yourself in the shower.’
I took a few more ginger steps, earned another smug laugh from him before his face grew solemn. ‘Thanks for telling me the truth about what was really going on with you and your family.’ He hesitated for a moment, then added, ‘And I’m sorry if I was too self-absorbed for you to feel you couldn’t tell me.’
I couldn’t stop my heart from flipping over, from running my fingers through his hair and tossing one small wish into the cosmos. That, if nothing else, I never lose his smile again. ‘Maybe I couldn’t have handled telling you then, anyway. But it feels right to tell you now. Does that make sense?’
After a moment, he nodded. ‘You couldn’t count on my reaction then but you’re strong enough to handle it now?’
I smiled, my throat clogging with how perfectly he’d got it. ‘Something like that.’ God, I hoped there would be more moments like these, when I could just bask in the warmth of his friendship.
‘What are you thinking about?’ he asked. ‘Besides how amazing I am, of course.’
Smothering my mushy feelings, I winked at him. ‘That’s for me to know and you to drive yourself cr
azy over.’
His gorgeous grin returned. ‘No need. You’re wishing I make it so you can’t walk for another solid week.’
I opened my mouth to say Keep dreaming, but somehow the words twisted, tapping into the vein of need he’d brought to life.
‘Kiss me again, Bryce. Make me stop thinking about all of the bad stuff.’
He continued to stare down at me for another half-minute, his fingers toying with my hair. Then his head swooped down and he caught my mouth in a searing kiss that did a fantastic job of wiping my brain clean.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Bryce
IT WAS A good idea to get out of the apartment. My head was spinning with sensory and information overload. The major one being how I’d missed the deeper undercurrents of what had been going on with Savvie and her family.
This time I couldn’t escape the stinging arrow of guilt. But maybe she was right. Maybe I wouldn’t have handled it then, on top of the crap going on with my own family.
But you can try now...
Could I, when I’d actively avoided the emotional for as long as I could remember? Did that fall under the purview of this different path we were taking?
Hell if I knew.
The sex, however...yeah, that was incredible. I loved sex in a healthy, non-obsessive way. But even before that first mind-blowing encounter I’d known I wanted to tie Savvie to my bed for an insanely long time that whiffed with notes of for ever. And call me primitive, but her confession that she’d never had a penetrative orgasm had made me want to roar and beat my chest like some bloody caveman and I wasn’t remotely ashamed.
Yeah, that had stoked my Mortimer arrogance to an all-time high.
Sex like that could only get better. And with the promise of anal sex hovering deliciously in our future, it was a miracle I could leave the apartment in one piece, especially with Savvie wearing that just-thoroughly-fucked-out-of-my-mind look and her lips swollen from our first, second and countless other kisses.
I pulled her to my side in the lift, and when she rested her head on my shoulder, I secretly touched my own lips, that heavy throb of satisfaction inside me toying with the hunger for more.