by Erin Havoc
The fault is her amazing body’s. Her ample hips and smooth skin. It’s even her cute freckles’ fault.
“How are you feeling?” I ask halfway through the series.
She stretches a side of her lip as she drops down a half-lunge. Her green eyes are glinting so bright they’re emeralds. “I’m feeling great. Pulling weights is way better than cardio.”
I shrug. “That’s because cardio’s boring as hell. You have to be a masochist to enjoy that.”
She laughs, and I grin back at her, unable to hold it back. I want to pat myself in the back for making her laugh and hearing that sound for the rest of my days has become my number one priority.
Holding the dumbbells in each hand, I watch her struggle through the last lunges, her teeth gritted. Walking around her, I put my hands around her hips and help her through the last ones.
“Remember to breathe,” I tell her once I notice she’s holding her breath. It’s a common reaction when the exercise gets tough, but it doesn’t really help. Once she’s finished, I have to pry my fingers from her hips.
It’s as if they were made to hold her.
“This one started off easy,” she grins as she puts the dumbbells back in place, “but it gets hard real fast.”
I nod her on but find nothing else to say. My whole body vibrates in contact with hers. My skin feels on fire.
Motioning, I guide her to the leg press equipment and show her how to use it before I help her in. But my mind is pinpointed in something else.
I cannot pass another moment without this woman. She’s perfect in every way and I want to spend the rest of my days telling her this. Proving her how incredible and beautiful she is. Watching her, I let the decision sink in.
She’s mine, and I’m hers, and we’re not wasting another day apart.
5
* * *
AMBER
I am exhausted.
This is way harder than I expected. Not the whole first-day-in-the-academy thing only, but being around Mark.
His fingers around my hips send a jolt through my body, a flame I have never felt. I know he is helping me through the exercise but my body cares not. His touch ignites me, sets my skin on fire. Lust, pure and unabashed, pools low in my belly, warm and tight, and I feel my panties soaking.
All he did was touching my hips. Over my leggings.
He hasn’t even touched my skin and I’m wet. My legs tremble both from the exercise and from the fatigue of pretending not to want him. Of pretending this is all strictly professional.
Mark’s eyes are dark as he watches me do a set of leg presses, and I’m gritting my teeth and glaring at the machine, crazy to finish this and go home.
Go home and touch myself.
Then call the gym to cancel my subscription.
I can’t keep on coming here. I can’t soak through my panties, dreaming about an impossible man every time I come to exercise. This is ridiculous. I’ll get nothing done this way.
Mark’s so kind and gentle, and so handsome and incredibly hot. And here I thought this kind of combination was impossible.
He’s a Greek god, lean and beautiful, built out of marble. My fingers itch to touch him, but I can’t let myself sustain this illusion. A man like him would never want a girl like me. Not in a thousand years.
The lust pooling inside me doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter the way I’m feeling, my heart hammering inside my chest as if we were about to have something.
As I finish the set, breathing hard, I accept his hand to get down from the equipment. His fingers grip me tight and send me in a new twirl of expectation.
His smile is soft this time, and he doesn’t let my hand go. “Well done. How did it go?”
“Great,” I breathe hard, but I’m honest. “I’m soaked but it feels amazing.”
His eyes shift with something I don’t recognize. “Perfect. Not too hard then?”
“No,” I shake my head, my ponytail hitting my jaw. I pull my hand from his to bring my fingers up to my hair and press the loose strands back into place. “I’m exhausted, but it’s a good exhausted. I feel accomplished.”
“Because you are,” the side of his lip tilts up. I can’t get enough of staring at him. Every new expression is my favorite one. “I’m still getting my head wrapped around the fact you never went to a gym.”
A giggle bubbles up within me. “It’s the truth!”
He’s looking at me with such a soft expression it makes my laugh die on my lips. It makes my heart skip a beat.
Mark tilts his head to where his office is. “Let’s get back to the office as soon as you catch your breath so I can show the routine I’ve got planned out for you.”
Pressing my lips together, I follow him slowly back. He doesn’t take the lead, watching me from where he walks, right next to me, his arm close to mine.
“I can’t wait.”
But I know it’s a lie. It’s a lie for I’m not coming back.
Watching the way he smiles at me, the feeling on the pit of my stomach dawns on me. The feeling alongside the lust. The warmth. The expectation.
I’m feeling so silly. I don’t know how or why, but I’ve fallen in love with him. At first sight. In a matter of minutes. I want to make him smile, and I want to hear him laugh, and I want him in my life.
There’s a connection. A recognition. I’ve never felt anything like this. No, nothing even near it.
And as good as it’s feeling now, I know it can’t last. For he can’t love me back.
6
* * *
MARK
I close the door behind us this time and follow her to the desk. I don’t know if she’s feeling the same way I feel for her, but I need to take this shot.
There’s no chance I’m spending another day without her.
As I sit down and pick her form back up, I take some notes on the back of the exercises we’ve done, giving us some time. For her to catch her breath. For me to choose the words wisely.
This can go wrong and I’m not willing to lose her. Now that I’ve found her, I cannot let her slip through my fingers.
“Drink some water, Amber,” I tell her, smiling at her still-flushed face. “Keeping yourself hydrated is part of the process.”
“Oh, of course,” she stands and walks to a drinking fountain we have next to the door.
“You’ve kept a good rhythm today,” I go on, unable to take my eyes from her perfect ass. “You’ll build muscle in no time.”
She looks over her shoulder and I don’t try to pretend I wasn’t staring. I just look up at her but she doesn’t seem to notice.
“I’d like to put the cardio in too. Maybe running for twenty or thirty minutes before pulling the weights? Is that okay?”
There she goes again. “Cardio for the heart,” I tell her. “Not for the weight, I hope?”
She twists the corner of her lip, turning around but not walking back. “I would like to lose some weight. People annoy me a whole lot about it. If I were slim, they wouldn’t bother me this much.”
A frown takes my face and I don’t try to hide it. “Amber, you’re perfect the way you are. Don’t change it because people are crazy. There’s a bunch of skinny girls here who also told me the same thing. You have to understand it’s never going to be enough. Nasty people are always going to find something wrong about everyone else.”
Her brows shoot up and I’m afraid I’ve gone too far. I drop the form and get up, walking to her.
But Amber’s pressing her lips together and sighing. “I know. I know they’re still going to find faults, but I still can’t help it. Isn’t it silly?”
I stand in front of her, and her smell wafts up to my nose, fuel to my erection. “If you know you look perfect, why do you want to change it? Fuck them off.”
Her gaze comes up to meet mine. She doesn’t mind that I’m standing so close to her, and my fingers tingle to touch her again. “I wish I could tell them to fuck off, but it’s kind of rude.”
/> The sarcastic smile on her lips is the last drop.
I breathe out a breath. “Fuck. How can you keep doing this?”
She blinks, confusion etched on her face. “Doing what?”
“Every new face you make is better than the last one. I cannot understand how is someone able to look this gorgeous.” I shake my head, “How is someone able to be this perfect?”
Her plump, kissable lips drop open. “What are you talking about?”
I run a hand through my hair in frustration. “I’m talking about you, Amber. About how you made me feel the moment I walked through that door and saw you.”
“How I made you feel?” She licks her lips, and it takes every ounce of my strength not to kiss her right then and there. “I’m not following, Mark.”
Bringing my hands up, I cup her cheeks. She gasps as I near her, but her hands come up to grip my hips, instinctively. As if they were always meant to be around me.
Leaning, I breathe against her face. I study her every feature, every inch of her, and I memorize her expression as I tell her what I have inside me. As I lay my heart down at her feet.
“I walked in today to find someone I’ve been looking for my whole life. I’ve found you. My whole body feels it. I’ve never believed in destiny but there’s no other way of describing this. Of understanding this.” Her eyes widen and I know it’s recognition. I know she’s feeling the very same. “Call me a mad man, but I have fallen in love with you the moment I put my eyes on you, Amber.”
She gasps again, her eyes wide. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am. Deadly serious.”
Amber presses her brows together. “It can’t be, Mark. We don’t… We can’t…”
“Tell me you don’t feel the same, Amber, and I’ll let you go and I won’t bother you. But only if you tell me your heart hasn’t beat differently when we met. Only if you tell me your whole body isn’t wanting this.”
She hesitates. After a moment, she shakes her head. “This can’t be serious. A guy like you?” She laughs a little, a painful sound that I want to devour. “Guys like you don’t love girls like me.”
Rage ignites within me and I want to hunt down and punch every person who ever made her feel like this. Every last person who ever made her feel less than worthy of everything in the world.
Brushing my thumbs against her cheeks, I smile. “Baby, forget everyone else. Forget the whole world. All I need to know is if you’re feeling like I am. If you want me like this too.” I press myself against her, press my hard cock against her. “Because I want you really hard.”
Her mouth drops open and I know this is the make it or break it.
She doesn’t step away, she doesn’t turn, she doesn’t flinch. The blush that crosses her face tells me something else entirely. The glint in her green eyes in full of heated lust.
The sound that escapes her is not insulted. Oh no, it’s a fucking groan.
And I can’t take another moment away. I close the last inches between us and kiss the air out of her. Groaning with her taste, I pry her lips open and dive in. Her hands around my hips grip hard and she doesn’t miss a beat. She kisses me back with furious desire, and I thank the heavens I have found this woman.
Now all I have to do is claim her as mine.
7
* * *
AMBER
I have a thousand reasons to believe this can’t be happening.
All of them disappear as his lips touch mine.
To hear him saying he feels exactly the same way I feel — from how his body reacts to mine, to how his heart recognizes me — is something I have never expected. I was sure this was an unrequited thing I’d have to deal on my own. Even if I had never felt this way for anyone, I thought I’d have to suck it up and deal with it.
I don’t need to. He feels the same.
This amazing, gorgeous and scorching hot man kisses me like this is his only chance. Like he’s got something to prove. But he doesn’t need to.
No, because I’m his. His lips on mine feel right. The kiss ignites a flame in me and, at the same time, feels like home. Like this was always meant to happen.
But right now, I’m slowly bucking against that impressive length against my belly.
Even standing on my tiptoes, I can’t reach it. My core yearns for a touch of him, but it’s so hard when he’s this much taller. I want to grind his length, I want to press myself against him, and it’s so frustrating I can’t reach it.
Mark’s hands come down my shoulders to press around my waist. Even through the cloth of my shirt, I feel the warmth of his fingers, and I want them on me. I want this burn on my skin.
He runs a hand down my hip and I press my shoulders against the wall to press my hips against him. His fingers sneak their way around and down to grip on my ass.
“Fuck,” he groans against my mouth, his voice hoarse with desire. It makes my body hum along, my blood fizzing in my veins. “Your ass looks and feels perfect, baby.”
Even with the sweet endearment in the end, his words still draw a new wave of arousal from me. I press my thighs together, seeking for some release of that pressure inside me.
A fever takes my body and I need to feel him. I’ve never felt anything like this. Not even close. No one never put my nerves on end this way. And he’s doing that with a kiss!
God, I can’t wait for him to fuck me.
Because no one’s ever made me feel nothing close to this, I am a twenty-two years old virgin. This was never a problem — I wasn’t going to fuck someone who wouldn’t make me feel ready. And here I am, grinding him like there’s no tomorrow.
I wonder if I should tell him. But right now, I’m focused on running my hands over the skin of his abdomen. Of course he has a six-pack. Bringing a hand to his back, I feel his muscles and he tenses under my touch. The way he reacts to me makes me feel certain of this feeling. Certain of what we’re doing.
Raking my nails down his back, I groan to the press of his hips against mine. He’s driving me crazy. His lips come down my face to my neck and he nibbles on me and sucks on my pulse. I’m a trembling, shivering mess but his mouth sets me on fire.
“You taste as amazing as I expected,” he murmurs against my ear and I laugh. He’s licking at my sweat-coated neck and he’s loving it. There’s no way he isn’t for real.
I roll my hips, seeking contact, and as if he’s reading my mind, Mark brings his hand under my shirt. Still holding my hip in place with a hand, he briefly touches the skin under my top before brushing his fingers down, over the rolls of my belly, to the waistband of my leggings.
This skin-to-skin contact makes me gasp, and he wastes no time slipping his fingers inside my pants.
“Oh, my God,” I moan, running a hand up to his shoulder. He presses himself against me and his strength is all that keeps me standing. My knees quiver as his digits rub me over my panties.
Mark’s groan rumbles through his chest and his lips are back on my ear. “You’re so hot, baby.”
“You’re driving me crazy,” I sigh against him, half-opening my eyes to look at his face.
He’s a barely contained beast. The look on his eyes tells me he’s holding back, holding back from what he really wants to do to me.
The hungry gaze sends me so close to the edge I’m gasping for air. Mark must feel it because he slips my panties aside, part my lower lips and his fingers find my core.
“Oh, God,” I cry, pressing my head back against the wall, my eyes fluttering shut with how hard I want to climax.
“Fuck, you’re soaking.” He groans against me as he slicks his fingers in my juices and brings them up to my nub. “Fuck,” he repeats, and I know this beast of a man is barely holding back.
I need to have him. I need to have him deep inside me. There’s a selfish, needy ache deep within me, and my whole body cries out for being claimed.
Mark brushes his fingers around my clit and I’m climbing so high I’m out of breath. He holds me tight agains
t him, nibbling on my ear and sending shivers rocking down my body.
“I need to taste you so bad,” he growls, feral and demanding.
“I’m almost there,” I tremble, I quiver, and he doesn’t stop. His motions are desperate but precise, and his fingers on me drive me up that cliff and off that edge in a second. I clench my jaw hard, and he presses his lips against me, devouring any sound that would come out. The idea someone might find us like this sends adrenaline coursing through my veins and I’m bucking against his hand and trying to make him enter me.
I’m a virgin but I wouldn’t mind him taking me over the desk or against the wall. Blind lust is making me crazy, and I’m kissing him back and devouring him as he pulls his hand back.
“Mark,” I manage to get the words out after I catch my breath. “Take me. Please.”
His eyes, I first notice, are not black, but dark blue like the depths of the ocean. His pupils though are so large with desire they’re all I see.
He clenches his jaw. “Not like this, baby. Let me take you home. I need to do this properly.”
I groan in frustration but I know he’s right. If someone finds us, he’d lose his job.
“Okay,” I say, licking my lips and savoring his taste on my tongue. I’m also parched to drink from him, and take his member between my lips, even if I’ve never done it before.
Mark kisses me one last time. “Our first time together can’t be like this. I want you sprawled on my bed. I want to make you come and I want to hear you scream before I take you. We can’t do this here.”
His love is so clear in every word he says I’m taken aback, my heart full and beating in contentment. Smiling, I let him take my hand and guide me out of the gym and into his car.
I’m ready. I’m ready for my forever.
8
* * *