Built: An enemies to lovers second chance bad-boy alpha romance

by Marr, Maggie

  My fingers wrap around the door knob and I open the door a tiny crack. “Two hours,” I say. I’ve never heard Jake apologize for anything.

  “And because Kennison told me he had a great time on your date tonight,” Jake says cracking wise at my expense.

  That’s it! “Fuck you, Jake Warner.” I yank open the door and there he stands with a giant grin on his face. A forearm pressed up against the doorjamb above his head and his hip cocked to the side.

  My breath rushes from my lungs.

  “I…I…”

  Fuck but Jake Warner is sex on a stick. Every. Single. Time. And he knows it too; he shoots me that wicked-as-fuck sexy-ass grin and my knees start to tremble, and my braless nipples harden under my tank top. His gaze drops a tiny bit and he shows more teeth with that smile—yeah, he can see my nipples getting hard.

  Asshole.

  I yank my fleece closed and cross my arms. “I had to endure that…that…beer-bellied bozo Keith Kennison all because of you.”

  “God, Tiger, you’ve always been good with the words.”

  Heat races up my spine with the word Tiger. I look into those bright blue eyes. They’re playful but also a little serious. Maybe even worried. Was he actually unsure as to whether I’d open the door?

  I cock my hips to the side with this very important knowledge: Jake Warner is playing defense.

  “Can I come in?” he asks, bringing his hand down from above his head. That pose—seeing him holding on to something above his head, a giant hunk of masculinity, just makes my toes curl.

  Stay strong.

  “No,” I say.

  “No?” Jake’s eyebrow lifts in surprise at my response, as though he’s not used to women telling him no after he stands them up.

  “No,” I say, cocking my head to the side. “You…you owe me an apology.”

  “I do,” Jake says as he takes a step closer to me. “I absolutely do.”

  I stand in the doorway with my arms crossed unwilling to budge an inch no matter how sexy Jake Warner is. He moves closer to me. Now we’re both in the doorway. His body skims mine and he leans forward and his chin—that damn chin with the little cleft in it—is just in front of me. His breath caresses my face. The heat of him skims my body.

  I swallow.

  “You need an apology, Tiger?” He whispers the word Tiger and my body reacts like he’s plugged me into an electrical socket. Jake saying Tiger is the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard. He’s close and hot and I’m dizzy with the scent of him and the feel of him and the nearness of him. I shake my head and wake myself from the physical swoon of being so near Jake.

  “I…I deserve an apology,” I say with as much ferociousness that I can muster, and admittedly it isn’t very much because while my mind has tried to forget those handful of nights in Jake’s arms, my body sure hasn’t because I’m wet and ready. My heart thrums at a completely inappropriate level and I keep my arms crossed tight over my chest because my nipples are tighter than the lid of a three-year-old pickle jar.

  He leans even closer. His lips graze my earlobe. My breath catches in my throat…I can’t breathe…I can’t think…I can’t… I close my eyes and his arm slips around my waist. And I am so swoony I release my arms and press a hand to his chest and his lips are on mine.

  Holy Fuck. Jake’s lips are on mine. And while my brain is flashing a giant red neon sign WARNING WARNING WARNING and my inner voice screams all the reasons why this can’t happen and shouldn’t happen and how standing in the doorway of my condo kissing Jake Warner is the worst thing I can possibly do for a million and one reasons—I don’t fucking care.

  I don’t.

  His hand slides down my body and clasps my ass. He pulls me close. I hitch my leg around his waist and it’s a good fit. A fulfilling fit, because my clit rubs against his cock and I’m H-O-T. I press my fingers through his hair. He is a mountain of a man and I want to climb him like a tree.

  Fuck It. I am all in!

  He presses his mouth to mine and grasps me and pulls me closer. His hand snakes around my waist and his hot lips trail down my neck. He stops at my collar bone and presses his hand along my belly. His finger are up and under my tank top. Desire floods through me. How long since I’ve been touched like this? Too long, and no matter how hard I try to convince myself otherwise, there’s never been another man who made me feel as good as Jake.

  He skims his hand over my belly and down past the waist of my pajamas. His fingers slide past the curls of my sex and just as he’s about to get to the good stuff and press the little button that will send me into hyperdrive, the little voice in the back of my head reminds me.

  “Uh,” I pant out, “Jake?”

  He continues to kiss my neck.

  “Hmm, feels so good,” he mumbles as he pulls up my shirt.

  Oh my God!

  “Jake!” I pull his hair and yank his head away from my chest before he slides my really ready nipple into his hot, wet mouth.

  “What is it, Tiger?”

  “Uh, you were going to say something?”

  He leans forward and his lips are on my neck again. “Mmmhmm, like how good you smell”—hot kiss—“how much I want you”—another hot kiss—“how sexy you are.”

  Each one is a knock-out punch. One more and I’m down for the count. I duck and weave pulling my body away from this sex god. I yank down my shirt and straighten my hair, trying to right myself.

  “No,” I say. “You were going to apologize for standing me up at Galvenetti’s.”

  “I am apologizing,” he says and slides his hands around my waist.

  “Uh, no you’re not,” I say and take a step back.

  “What do you call this?” he asks.

  “Seriously?” My eyebrows pull so tight that I can feel my unibrow forming. “I call this, you trying to get into my pants after you stood me up and did not apologize.”

  Jake turns his head and takes a step back, “Uh, Becca, I came over here to apologize, I told you that.”

  “Then do it,” I say and cross my arms.

  “Do what?”

  “Say it, say I’m sorry.”

  “What do you think I’m doing?” he asks.

  “I think we’ve already been over this. Why weren’t you there?” I ask. “You didn’t even say.”

  Suddenly Jake’s cocky-ass grin falls from his face and he looks like he’s been caught. I know that look. I grew up with Jake and this look, the one I’m getting now, is the look Jake gives any teacher, parent, friend, colleague, ex-girlfriend, or booty call when he’s been asked a question that he doesn’t know how to answer. In fact, I’ve seen this very look given to me more than once before tonight.

  “It was a woman, wasn’t it? You were out with another woman,” I say.

  “Becca, it wasn’t like that,” Jake says.

  “Then what was it like Jake?”

  “I…I can’t—”

  “You can’t tell me or you won’t?” I am so stupid. How many times will I fall for Jake’s games before I figure out that this is simply not what I can have in my life. Obviously more times than I thought.

  Jake sighs and shakes his head. “It wasn’t like that, Becca. I wasn’t out on a date and I didn’t forget about you.” Jake sighs and shoves his hands into his back pockets. “I had to help a friend.”

  “Then tell me how you helped your friend,” I say, knowing that while I may sound like a be-yotch, I have been burned by Jake before.

  “I can’t, Becca,” he says and his shoulders droop. “I just can’t.”

  My nostrils flare. I’m pissed. Not just at Jake, but at myself too. “Then I can’t either,” I say and I slam my front door.

  Chapter 7

  Jake

  I’m not giving up that easily. I may be big and strong, but I’m not stupid.

  Knock, knock, knock.

  “Becca, open the door,” I say. “Please.”

  Nothing, not a word. No response.

  “Becca?” I rap two kn
uckles against the door and wait, but instead of Becca’s voice or footsteps, all l hear is the volume going up on her flat screen TV. “Come on Becca,” I say. Damn. Hmm…I reach up and slide my hand along the doorjamb above her apartment door. Surely she doesn’t—BINGO! Key to door. And really stupid move for a single woman who lives alone. Note to self: remind Becca to find a different place for her secret key.

  “Becca,” I yell through the door, “I’m letting myself in, okay?” I slide the key into the lock and turn the knob. “Just letting you know that I’m coming in,” I yell again. I open the door and the room has the blueish TV light from some sad-ass chick flick playing on the big screen. I look toward her couch—no Becca. “Hey, Becca!” I call. I walk across the living room and down the hall to the bathroom, open and no Becca. Hmm…her bedroom door is closed and I hear a humming sound…a kind of loud humming sound. The door is open a crack and I press it wider with my hand.

  “Uh…Bec—

  I stop speaking. My jaw drops open and my cock nearly pops out of my pants. Becca’s head is pressed back against her pillow and she has a gargantuan dildo pressed against her pussy.

  Holy fuck! This is the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. Her hips rock up and back. Her eyes are closed and her teeth are pressed against her bottom lip.

  “Yes, God yes! Please, Jake, please!” she moans.

  Oh…this is…this is so…so… I press my hand to my jaw. This is so fucking hot and so fucking wrong, that I’m standing here, watching this, but I cannot move. Literally, I’m fucking hard as stone and my eyes, I can’t pull my eyes from this hot woman who is making herself come with a ginormous dildo as she calls my name. Her fingers slide up her belly and she pulls up her shirt and squeezes her taut nipple.

  How wrong would it be for me to slide on over there and run my fingers over her thigh and slide down between her legs. Before I can stop myself or think much about it, I walk to the end of her bed.

  The view from this angle is fucking killer. Becca’s about to give me a fucking heart attack. Seriously. Her legs are spread and she has that huge cock pressed deep into her juicy pussy. The dildo has ears…is that the rabbit? And the ears circle around her clit and her juices—man they are flowing.

  Fuck yes.

  I kneel down in front of the spread so I can get a closer look. I want that pussy. My mouth is watering for her sweet, juicy pussy. I lean forward and I press one hand to her thigh. Becca’s eyes pop open and she starts to jerk away when she sees me. Her gaze locks with mine.

  “I want you,” I say. “Please, I want you so fucking bad.”

  Her lips are in a perfect o and the rabbit isn’t the one that is going to take her over the edge. I reach out and I pull the rabbit from her hands and then I press my lips to her clit.

  Fuck me. Sexy hot juices so sweet and tart swirl in my mouth. I suck her clit deep between my lips and run my tongue around and around that little button of pure pleasure.

  “Oh, FUCK!” she yells and grabs my hair and pulls. I don’t move. Oh no. Sweet sweet sweet Becca, you need an apology I’m going to give you one, right here, right between your legs. Oh yes, let me spell it out for you on the head of your clit. My tongue starts with a capital “I” and Becca’s hips roll up and back and up and back. By the time I get to stroking the second “R” in sorry on her clit, Becca’s body has frozen to stone no less than two times. Each time I hold her hips in place and continue giving her this fucking pleasure that drives her wild. I pulse two fingers in and out of her tight sex when all I want is to fill her with my cock.

  “Please, Jake! Please, fuck me. I want you inside me…please fuck me.” She sits up and rolls forward and grasps at my pants and she has them stripped off my body in seconds. “Oh my God, your cock,” she moans. She grasps it with both hands and strokes up and down my shaft. Her lips latch on and she sucks me deep into the heat of her mouth and after watching her get off and kissing her to orgasm, I can barely stand the pleasure of seeing sweet little Becca give me head.

  “Baby,” I say, “come on, please, baby.” She slips my cock from her mouth and gives me a sexy-ass smile. She rolls over and her ass, that juicy ass, is right in front of me as she grabs for a condom in the bedside table and then she’s back. She unrolls it down my shaft and lies back, legs open in invitation for me. I stop. I look. There, lying in front of me is every fantasy I’ve had for the last five years.

  The woman I want. The woman I compare all other women to. The only woman who has been on my mind no matter who I’ve been with and here she’s mine for the taking.

  I lean forward and put a hand on either side of her body. I press my lips to her belly.

  “Oh Jake, please,” she moans.

  I glide my lips up and over her chest. I pull a nipple deep into my mouth and roll it around my tongue.

  “Oh, yesssss,” she hisses out over clenched teeth.

  Oh yes, indeed. I settle my cock between the warm wet of her sex and her entire body pulses and quivers. Her hips rolling forward and back. Mmmhmm, Becca wants an apology, she’s going to get the very best one that I can give. Releasing her nipple from my mouth, I let my lips roam up her neck until I reach her mouth. Her full lips are beggin’ to be sucked and I slip her bottom lip between mine and pull it into my mouth. Her hips rock up and back and I’m having the toughest time not ramming my cock hard and deep into that wet space that waits for me.

  “How you doin’, Tiger?” I ask. My gaze locks to hers and I lift an eyebrow—yeah it’s taking every bit of restraint I have to be cute. Her intense blue eyes are like lasers.

  “Stop fuckin’ around and get to down to business, Jake Warner,” she says, a wicked grin at the edges of her lips.

  “Love it when you talk dirty, babe.” I pull my hips back and ever so slowly, in a way that is sweet, beautiful, torture for both of us, slide the tip of my cock into the tight ring of her sex.

  “Yes, oh God, please yes,” she says and clamps her nails deep into the flesh of my ass, which turns me on off the charts. That’s it. My restraint flies from my brain and the only thing I can do is thrust deep and hard into Becca.

  “God, yes!” she yells

  I pull myself up and grab both her thighs and place them over my shoulders and she’s even tighter around my cock. Here, from this spot, I see Becca’s face and her tits, and all of her. Fuck me. I ram into her, watching her bite her bottom lip, and her head tilts back and her entire body stills. She claws my shoulder with her nails. Her eyelids open and she locks her gaze onto me.

  “Jake, oh my God, Jake…Jake, I’m going to come.”

  “Come for me baby, come for me,” I say and push deep and hard into her sex over and over and over again. Heat tugs deep in my balls and I am going over the edge soon.

  “Jake!” she yells and curls up, pleasure ripping through her body.

  Heat rips through my balls and out my cock, and I am deep inside her and fuck we are over the edge and orgasming together.

  Chapter 8

  Becca

  I wake up and it’s nearly dawn. My bed is empty. He’s gone. Of course he’s gone, because that’s the way Jake is. Love ‘em and leave ‘em and I’m just stupid enough to fall for his routine every damn time. I grab my pajama bottoms (at least he didn’t take those) and slip a t-shirt over my head. I pad out my bedroom door and take a left and walk right into a giant, gorgeous, man.

  Jake.

  He’s still here. He has on his jeans, but no shirt.

  “I got hungry,” he says. Even in the dark, there is this teasing look in his eyes. “That tiramisu from Galvenetti’s is pretty damn good.” He wiggles his eyebrows. He bends down and presses his lips to mine and there is that sweet taste of sugar and Jake.

  “This is a bad idea, Tiger,” he says through his kisses.

  “The worst,” I pant out.

  “I should leave,” he says.

  “Yes you should.” I press my mouth to his and kiss him even deeper. “But you want to stay and I want you to stay too.”r />
  His arm tightens around me and with one strong pull he lifts me. My legs wrap around his waist.

  Holy Fucking Hotness!

  I press both my hands to his jaw and my lips to his. He walks down the hall carrying me. My God I want this man. We enter my room and I slide down his body. My feet touch the floor and he steps back.

  Fuuuuuck. This man. Swear to God, the Hemsworth brothers have nothing on Jake Warner.

  He looks like a Greek god; his body appears to be from chiseled stone. His job as a builder has created muscles on Jake’s body that I’ve never even seen on other men. He pulls off his jeans.

  “You’re unreal,” I say. “How is that even possible?” I could bounce a quarter pretty much off any part of this man’s body.

  He tilts his head and gives me that sexy-as-fuck grin that I absolutely hate and completely adore. And my knees nearly buckle. He walks toward me and his hands reach out to the waist of my pajamas. His smile widens.

  “Tiger, are those my pajamas?” he asks.

  “Are you kidding me with this?” Heat flames my face. I’ve been found out.

  “They are!” He smiles; now Jake knows that not only do I want him, but nearly every night for almost six years, I’ve worn his pajama bottoms to bed.

  “Tiger, I had no idea the torch you carry for me,” he says and shoots me a smile—a smile that is quite simply my kryptonite.

  “Shut up and kiss me,” I say and he does. I press my palm to his chest just to feel the sheer perfection of his flesh. My other hand slides over his ab muscles, ridge after ridge, until I clasp the smooth skin of his cock.

  Oh yes.

  I glide my hand down his thick, hard shaft. His breath hitches with my touch and his reaction excites me even more.

  “Oh, babe,” Jake hisses out around our kiss.

  His hand slides down to cup my ass and he pulls me even closer. His cock presses against my hip. My nipples are hard and press against the muscles of his chest. He lifts me onto the bed and lays me back.