by Lili Valente
So, I do, kneeling and taking her hips in my hands as I lean in, kissing a trail across the soft skin just above her panties.
She threads her fingers into my hair. “How could I have forgotten this?”
“Forgotten what?” I run a finger beneath the elastic, already dying to taste her, to get my mouth between her legs and make her lose control on my tongue.
“That your mouth is magic,” she whispers.
“I haven’t even started with the magic yet, Red.” Cupping her bottom in my hands I lift her onto the bed and lengthen myself on top of her, struck instantly by how right it feels to have Aria under me. And then she spreads her legs, wrapping them around my waist and pulling me tight against her. I feel the heat of her against my aching cock, making it hard to think of anything but getting inside her.
But first I have a promise to keep.
I reach behind her, popping the clasp on her strapless bra.
Her breath rushes out against my lips. “Pretty handy with those fingers.”
“I’m even handier with my tongue,” I promise, kissing her again, hard and deep, as I cup her breast in my hand, brushing my thumb back and forth across her nipple until her hips rock against my cock.
“I want you so much,” she says, rubbing my erection through my boxer briefs, making the blood rush faster in my ears. “I’m on the pill. We don’t need a condom.”
“Good to know.” I kiss my way down her throat, relishing the soft, needy sounds she makes as I continue to play with her nipples, rolling first one and then the other between my fingers and thumb. “I’ll keep that in mind. When we’re ready.”
“I’m ready. So ready.”
“Not even close. There’s still so much of you left to kiss.” I pause above her breast, letting my breath warm her nipple before I drag my tongue across the tight tip, making her gasp as I lick and suckle and bite until she squirms beneath me, her breath coming faster.
“Please,” she says, her fingernails digging into my shoulders. “Nash please, I need you inside me.”
“I’m going to give you everything you need, baby, I promise.” Fingers curling over the top of her panties, I drag them down her legs and toss them to the floor. “Spread your legs,” I say, shifting lower. “I haven’t kissed you everywhere yet.”
Her thighs tremble beneath my hands. “You don’t have to, I—”
“I want to, so much,” I say, inhaling the sweet, salty scent of her as I urge her legs wider, until every slick inch of her is bare to me.
She’s beautiful here, too, so fucking gorgeous I can’t wait to explore her, to taste her, to show her how her body drives me out of my damned mind with wanting her
Tilting my head, I kiss her pussy the way I kissed her lips, deep and hungry, my tongue swirling against her clit until she arches into my mouth, grinding against my face.
“Oh, God, Nash, yes. Oh my God…”
“Yes, baby,” I moan as she comes, sending more salty heat rushing over my tongue, destroying the last of my control.
I surge over her and her arms wrap tight around me, pulling me close as I guide my cock between her legs and push inside. She cries out, a primal sound of satisfaction I echo as I glide all the way in, until every inch of me is gripped in her tight, wet heat.
“God, Aria,” I breathe. “You feel so good. So perfect.”
And she does.
Being naked with a woman has never felt so natural. So right.
“Don’t stop,” she begs, clinging to my shoulders. “Please, Nash, don’t stop.”
“Never,” I promise as I shift my hips, pulling back before driving slowly back inside, establishing a slow, sensual rhythm that she matches as she lifts to meet me at the end of each thrust.
She feels like heaven.
I never want to leave her body, never want to stop, never want to look away from the eyes holding mine, showing me everything she’s feeling, leaving no doubt that she’s loving this every bit as much as I am.
I had no idea sex could be like this, so close and connected, but hot as hell at the same time. I’ve always had one or the other, never both, and I can’t help wishing we’d had better luck that night when we were kids, and that I’d only know this.
Only known her.
“Oh yes, yes,” Aria cries out, her body clenching tight around me, sending me tumbling over the edge a second later.
I groan as I thrust inside her one last time, losing myself in her sweetness, my entire being vibrating with a satisfaction so profound that, for several minutes after, I lie breathless on top of her, waiting for my body and soul to come back together again.
When they do, I start to pull away, to reach for my discarded tee-shirt to clean us up, but Aria wraps her legs around me, holding me prisoner.
“Not yet.” She traces lazy patterns on my back with her warm fingertips. “I don’t want you to leave yet.”
I relax, but stay propped up on my arms, smiling down at her. “Your cheeks are bright red.”
She giggles. “Hazard of being a redhead. Crying and coming, both of them make me pink all over.”
“I like you pink all over,” I say. “And I love being inside you.”
She bites her lip “Me, too. That was…all the good things.” She wraps her arms around me, lifting her head to press a kiss to my chest.
“It was,” I agree, kissing her neck. “If we’re that good at it our first time, think how amazing we’ll be in a year or two.”
She sighs. “We’ll be ready to join the Sex Olympics.”
“The multi-orgasmic division,” I murmur, nipping at the place where her neck meets her shoulder.
“Yes, please,” she says with a giggle. “Though honestly I get excited if I get one. I’ve never gotten there that fast before. Especially with someone new.”
I pull back to meet her eyes. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she says, adding in a softer voice. “That was the best sex I’ve ever had.”
“Me, too,” I confess. “I had no idea it could be like that. So intense, but…easy at the same time.”
“Natural,” she says, echoing my thoughts from earlier. “Like we were born to make each other feel good.”
“Agreed. It was exactly like that.”
She brushes my hair from my forehead. “So, we should probably do our best not to fuck this up, huh? At least not until we’ve had sex a few thousand more times?”
“At least. I’m telling you, staying married for real just makes sense logistically.” I shoot for a joking tone, but I’m holding my breath as I wait for her response.
I want this—want her—for real.
“I think you’re right,” she says, making my chest ache with relief.
“So, we’re going to give it a shot?”
She nods. “What’s the worst thing that can happen? We get divorced, and we were planning to do that anyway, so…”
I frown. “That’s a pessimistic way of looking at our future, March.”
“I just like to keep my feet on the ground, Geary.”
“I can think of way better places for your feet.”
She arches a brow. “Yeah?”
“Oh, yeah. Like…behind my head for example.” I reach down, cupping the back of her thigh, urging her leg higher.
Her eyes widen. “I don’t know if I’m this flexible.”
“Oh, I think you are,’ I say, bringing her ankle to rest on my shoulder, my cock thickening inside her as I reach for her other thigh. “I believe in you, Aria March. But I need you to believe in me, too.”
“I believe in you,” she whispers, wiggling her hips as I lift her other leg, making my body even happier to see her, to feel her, to know she’s mine for the foreseeable future. “This position is way more comfortable than it looks in sexy videos.”
I arch a brow. “You like sexy videos?”
“I watch them every once and a while, but I like the real thing,” she says, her lashes fluttering as I pull out and glide slowly back inside her
, giving her time to adjust to the angle. “And I love this. So much.”
“Me, too,” I echo. “I don’t ever want to stop.”
“Then don’t,” she says. “Don’t ever stop.”
I try my best, I really do, but eventually I lose control and spiral out all over again. But after a shower and a cup of ice water, I’m ready for round three and so is she.
We make up for lost time deep into the night until we finally pass out sometime around one in the morning, sated, spent, and perfectly tangled in each other’s arms.
Chapter Nineteen
Aria
One Week Later
“Seriously. I hate both of you!” Melody slaps a hand onto the prep table with an outraged huff.
I straighten, blinking in surprise as I shift my gaze from the nearly-finished cake in front of me to my sister’s outraged face. “What? Why? What did we do?”
“You haven’t stopped smiling for days,” Melody says. “You’ve even been humming. You never hum. And Lark is so blissed out she’s practically floating through the kitchen. It’s disgusting.” Melody flops back down on her stool and grumpily resumes folding homemade ravioli for the baked pasta dish the bride selected as her vegetarian option.
So much smarter than feeding the poor vegetarians a salad and thinking that will be enough to keep them going through the rest of the reception.
Vegetarians need protein, too.
“You’re only twenty-two, you’ll meet someone special soon,” Lark says, laughing as she slides a pan of chicken breasts into the oven. “Cheer up. Green isn’t your color, Mels.”
“I’m not jealous,” Melody protests. “Both of you are so in love it’s just a little…sickening to be around for more than ten or fifteen minutes at a stretch, that’s all.”
I set my icing tube down by the cake and circle around the table to give Melody’s shoulders a squeeze. “Hey, I know how you feel. I was right where you are just a few weeks ago. I know it can be hard to be around lovesick people when you’re feeling lonely. I promise I’ll try to be less sickening.”
Melody sighs. “No. Don’t. Be grossly happy. You deserve it.” She squeezes my hand. “I guess the meeting with your lawyer went well? Sorry I forgot to ask first thing.”
“No worries,” I say. “And yeah, it did go well. She’s got a lot of experience and thinks our case is solid. We may still end up going to court if Liam won’t settle after the hearing, but Nash and I are cautiously optimistic. What about you?” I ask, not wanting to dwell on things I can’t control. Like my ex and his unpredictable behavior. “Why so glum? I thought you had a hot date last night.”
Melody heaves another tragic sigh. “Yeah, right. Hot as day old oatmeal. And about as much fun to spend time with.”
“I told you to stop letting Nana set you up with boys from church.” I drag a stool next to Melody’s and pitch in with the ravioli, folding the pasta around the cheese filling before crimping the edges. “Boys from church are evil.”
“Boys from church are not evil,” Lark protests as she drifts from one end of the kitchen to the next, blissfully attending to the items on her list.
Melody’s right, Lark is floating these days. I’m so happy to see her so happy. After years of dating her fair share of day-old oatmeal guys, she deserves every second of her happily-ever-after.
“No, they are evil,” Melody says. “At least this one was. He made me split the check down the middle, even though I only had an entrée, and he had an entrée, an appetizer, a salad, and three glasses of wine. Then he tried to sneak a hand up my dress before we’d even kissed.” She shudders. “So gross and the opposite of romantic.”
“You should let me set you up with the new nurse at Mason’s practice,” Lark says. “He’s only a year older than you and totally adorable.”
“But what if it doesn’t work out?” Melody nibbles her lip. “Wouldn’t that be weird for him at work?”
Lark pauses with a dollop of sour cream halfway to the bowl in front of her, cocking her head thoughtfully to one side. “Well…maybe. And he has red hair, and you have that thing about redheads.”
“What?!” I twist to shoot an outraged look Melody’s way. “And what exactly do you have against redheads, may I ask?”
Melody’s hands lift into the air in surrender. “Not you! Boy redheads.”
“What’s wrong with boy redheads?”
“I just don’t think they’re attractive in that way,” she says with a shrug.
“What if my next child is a boy with red hair?” I demand, not about to let her off the hook that easily. “Are you saying he deserves to be shunned by women because of a little ginger in his bloodline?”
Melody’s jaw drops, while Lark stops stirring pea salad and turns wide eyes my way.
“What?” I ask, not understanding the strained silence. “I was just teasing. Mostly…”
“No, you weren’t,” Melody says, a smile spreading slowly across her face. “You’re already thinking about more babies! With Nash! Oh my gosh, you’ll have the cutest babies!”
I roll my eyes, but I can’t stop grinning and a warm, gooey, blissed-out feeling practically oozes from my pores.
The past seven days have been the best week of my entire life, bar none, including the time I spent in Paris. Nash and I are falling so hard and fast it would be terrifying if it didn’t feel so wonderfully, perfectly right. He’s the lover of my sexiest dreams, a friend I can be myself with, and the kind of father I’ve always wanted for Felicity.
He’s so great with her it makes me tear up sometimes. Normally, I’d hate being caught off guard by rogue emotions, but it doesn’t bother me now. It feels okay to tear up with Nash, especially when they’re tears of gratitude.
“So, when is this happening?” Melody demands. “You’re not pregnant now, are you?”
“God, no. Relax,” I say with a laugh. “I just got Felicity sleeping through the night. I need rest, woman. We’re not even thinking about babies…” I shrug, but I can’t resist adding. “Not until next summer anyway.”
“Next summer!” Lark claps her hands. “That’s so perfect! Mason and I are going to start trying then, too! We could have cousins the same age!”
I make calming motions with both hands, encouraging them to settle the heck down. “But nothing’s a go, yet. Nash and I are going to wait and see where we are in a year and make the decision then.”
I return to folding ravioli, hoping that will be the end of the conversation.
I probably shouldn’t have mentioned something so private in front of Lark and Melody. Yes, Nash and I talked about having another child, but we were naked in bed at the time—a state of being that has occurred an impressive number of times over the past few days, considering we both have full-time jobs and there’s a baby in the house.
You can’t always trust that naked conversations are reasonable conversations. I should have kept the baby dreams to myself a little longer, but the words just slipped out.
I’m so happy I forget that I have anything to hide.
But, of course, I do.
Nash and I are still hiding the initial reasons for our sudden marriage from our families and everyone else.
Living a lie can make things awkward sometimes. Like when we went to his sister’s house for dinner last Saturday. I could see how much Nash hated deceiving Raleigh and Alexandria.
We ended up having a great time—his sisters are warm, welcoming people who tell hysterical stories about their giant family—but when the night was over and we were back home, we both felt weird about it. We agreed we don’t want to keep this secret forever. So we talked it over and decided to tell our families the truth on our first anniversary. We figured that will be enough time to prove our marriage is going to stick, and by then there’s a chance we’ll have other, more exciting news to share that will distract everyone from our teeny tiny lie.
If all goes well, we’re hoping to start trying for a baby in May.
A baby.
With Nash.
The thought turns me on way more than it probably should. But creativity is sexy. All kinds of creativity—painting and baking and making love and making babies and building a family with your favorite person in the world.
“You’re humming again,” Melody mutters with a mock glare my way.
“Sorry.” I wince, but I’m still grinning.
“It’s all right.” She stands, wiping her hands on her apron. “I’m going to step outside and get some fresh air, see if the waiters are here yet. Hum until your heart’s content.”
“Take your phone,” Lark calls as Melody starts for the door. “Get a few shots of the venue for the website. It’s pretty out there today.”
“Got it.” Melody snags her phone from the edge of the prep table. “See you two lovebirds in a bit.”
I wait until the heavy door closes behind her before I ask Lark, “You think she’s okay? She’s usually so optimistic. Almost obnoxiously so.”
“She’s fine,” Lark says. “She’s just going through a hard time right now. I don’t imagine it’s easy for her. A few months ago, she had a steady boyfriend and you and I were the ones who were in the relationship dumps.”
I sigh “True. Kind of blows your mind, doesn’t it? How quickly things can change?”
“Totally,” Lark agrees, putting the first tray of baked ravioli in the oven, “and they’ll change for Melody, too. I’m sure of it. Things change quickly in your early twenties.” She turns, snapping her fingers. “Which reminds me, did Nash give you his brother’s phone number?”
I frown. “No, was he supposed to?”
“No, I just thought you might have it. I forgot to get it on the paperwork.” She waves a hand. “But it’s no big deal. I’ll get it from him when he clocks in today.”
After some gentle pestering on my part, Lark graciously agreed to hire Nash’s younger brother, Nick, for some part-time work. The black sheep of the Geary family, Nick recently moved back to Bliss River from Atlanta, after being kicked out of his apartment for infractions I’m still not entirely clear on. After a long day at work, Nash hadn’t seemed to want to talk about it, and I’m easily distracted when he would rather kiss than talk.