He sighs. “Because I loved you. I love you so much it blinds me. Something in me … it’s just how I am, this need to control things and be the decision maker. I wanted to know that you felt the same, that you were on the same page and that us … how we were going to be was going according to my plan. We’re both stubborn in different ways, Peyton. I needed you to say how you felt, and you needed me to give you space. To let you have time to adjust to it.”
Jared’s hands ghost over my skin until his fingers are gently massaging the top of my arms. I want so badly to move into him, to feel his strong chest and arms enveloping me. “And how do you feel about me now?”
Tears still come as I swallow the lump in my throat. The moment feels so heavy, so weighted with emotion and importance that I feel lightheaded and faint. “I think you know nothing has changed for me.”
Jared’s breath hits my ear. “I need to hear you say it. Say those words to me and I swear I’ll give you anything you ask for. You know I would. I love you, Peyton Adams. I’ve loved you for a long time now. The game has been over for me since I met you; I just need to know that it’s over for you. Just say the words, and that’s it. I think four years is long enough to wait.”
“But this is crazy. We barely know each other; we haven’t talked about all of the little things. You’ve never taken me on a date!”
His fingers reach my chin and lift it, so that we’re looking straight into the other’s eyes. “That’s not fair. I took you out for sushi in London, and that was a damn fine date if I remember correctly. Look at me … we know the big things. Sometimes all it takes is one look for people to fall in love. For me it was three days. And I’ve waited four years to feel it back. We have all the time in the world to learn the little things. But I know the only important one; I love you. Now tell me you love me too.”
By the end of his speech I’m in shambles, with tears streaming down my cheeks and my breath coming in spastic puffs. I’m fully in his grip now, with my hands fitted around his jaw and his looped around my waist and neck. My emotions feel like tumbling passes, running up and down my body, flipping my stomach and heart.
Then the moment is crystal clear. “I love you, Jared.”
21
Jared
Tingly. It’s a feminine thing to say, but after Peyton tells me that she loves me, it’s all I feel. My entire body feels like pins and needles, and my heart feels like it’s dismounting from my body. Soaring and flying before it comes back down to reality.
I’m not sure who moves first. Maybe it’s both of us. Our heads dip and lips part. My hands find her cheeks and hers rest on my jaw as we come together, soft and testing. It feels like a new couple, not us, trying this out for the first time. The kiss feels intimate but light, there isn’t as much pressure or … anxiety I guess. I move my tongue and mouth in tandem with Peyton’s, trying to tell her with my body language just how much I love her.
Moving my lips along the beautiful lines of her jaw, I nibble my way to her ear, the entire time letting my hands explore the long curves of her hips and stomach. The tight turtleneck sweater she has on is an alluring tease. It shows her curves, let’s me feel the sexy dips and luscious valleys of her figure, but I can’t see it. Her nose is still red from standing in the cold air outside. Or from crying.
“I love you,” I whisper before setting my teeth to her earlobe, raking them across the skin and waiting to hear that low, delicious moan of hers.
And she gives it to me. That sound that sets my blood on fire, that makes my cock go rigid in half a second and my balls tingle with the need for release. “Mmm, Jared …”
“What’s that, baby?” My dominant side comes out, needing to hear how much I’m affecting her.
She pushes her hips into mine, bumping our centers together. Peyton squirms and I push her back against the counter, grinding my dick into her stomach until she can really feel it. My boxers and jeans chafe against my engorged head, the need to release myself from my pants so urgent and primitive.
“Kiss me,” Peyton pants as I stare down into her eyes, gyrating our hips together in a slow, torturous rhythm.
“Don’t you remember, baby? I’m in charge.”
Her eyes flash, the green and amber mixing in a dizzying combination while I pull her up and onto my body. I carry her, sucking on her neck just a little too hard as she gasps into my hair. My bed is on the second floor, and I refuse to stop before I get there. Naked and spread out for me to feast on and pleasure, that’s how I want Peyton.
I dig my hands into her ass as I spread her legs wider around my hips. “Once we get upstairs, I’m going to throw you on the bed.”
First stair.
“I don’t want you to lift a finger. This is my time. You’re mine, now.”
Fifth stair.
“I’m going to strip you bare. Don’t think it will be quickly either. No, I’m going to peel your clothes off inch by inch. Until you’re writhing with so much need, I won’t even need to bury my tongue in your pussy to get you wet.”
Tenth stair.
“And then, when I’m good and ready, I’m going to take my dick in my fist and position it at your dripping … wet … pink opening.
Last stair.
“And then I’m going to push inside you. You’re going to feel every vein of my cock, I’m going to make you scream until my neighbors hear it.”
We crest the final step and I walk slowly toward my bedroom, careful to recognize the labored sounds of Peyton’s breathing.
“I almost forgot how good you are at this.” She sinks her teeth into the top of my earlobe, and the bite is both sensual and painful.
And I almost forgot she takes as good as she gives it back. While I need to be dominant, so does she. It’s what makes us so explosive in bed.
My big king bed sits tall and regal, dominating the room. And once I get close enough, I launch Peyton onto it.
“Asshole!” she shrieks as she lands, laughing and breaking the tense anticipation I built on the way up the stairs.
“Am I allowed in there tonight?” I smirk at her as I climb onto her body, scooting her farther back on the bed as she tries to playfully get away.
“You’re being a wise-ass, so no.” Her sweater has ridden up her torso, revealing a beautiful slice of stomach.
I bend my head to nuzzle it, to take in her scent, to feel the silk against my cheek. Peyton purrs, wiggling thighs and grinding down on me as she tries to get her core pressed up to the exact spot she needs it.
“Take my clothes off, Jared.” She pulls my hand up to her sweater and begins to help me push.
I can’t deny her, even if she is calling the shots right now. I whip the sweater off to reveal a lacy peach bra. Peach. I have to chuckle as I press my lips to each delicate cup, because it’s a soft color. Never a color I’d associate with my woman, but it doesn’t mean she doesn’t look like the best fucking present I’ll ever get to unwrap.
Sticking my blunt fingertip into the right cup, I push and pluck her nipple, making her perky breast fall out of the bra.
“Fuck, I love your nipples.” I bend my head and suckle one into my mouth, relishing the loud moan she pours over me like hot lava.
“And I love your dirty mouth in bed.” Peyton sticks two fingers beneath the waistband of my jeans and moves to the front of my hip, a sensitive spot close to my upper thigh that she pushes. I give a growl, because she’s getting closer and closer to my painfully hard erection.
“I only curse when something is really,” I unbutton her pants, “really,” I pull them over her hips and ass, “really,” and then slide them off her feet, “important.”
Peyton is a vision. Beautiful, curvy, ball-meltingly hot. And all mine.
“Don’t come back up here until I can see your bare cock,” she whispers, and slides a hand down her thong.
Fuckkkkk. I undress so quickly that it’s a miracle I don’t give myself whiplash. Usually I’m calm and controlled, but again, the whole hav
en’t been in a woman in four years thing is getting to my head.
“Spread those pretty legs for me.” I fist myself and stroke, my own hand doing nothing to dull the burning in my dick. No, for that I needed her.
She does as I command, posing for me with a coquettish look on her face. It screams both tease and innocence, and makes me want to spank her ass.
“I’m not going to lick you, or stick my fingers in your pussy. No, we’ll have time for that later. Right now, I think you’re dripping wet. You’re ready to let my cock part you, you can take it.”
After retrieving a condom from my bedside drawer and rolling it on, I reach for the lace at her hips and pull, ripping a hole in them with my thumb as I maneuver them down her legs. Her skin is silky smooth, sparking under my fingers and turning us into one enormous lightening bolt. We might explode if I don’t get inside of her soon. She reaches around herself to take the lacy piece of fabric from her breasts, but I halt her, cupping her round, firm peak in my hand.
“No, leave it on.”
My hands knead her soft tits, her nipples seeking my palms. I truss her up, the silky skin gleaming with the wetness from my mouth. And while I’m distracting her, plucking at each nipple until she’s writhing beneath me, I drive into her.
White. Hot white light. It’s all I see as I squeeze my eyes shut in pure pleasure.
“Haven’t … had this … in so long. So … so fucking good.” I have to bite down on Peyton’s collarbone to keep from coming right then and there.
Her pussy swallows my dick, gripping and spreading as I grind my body up against her. My balls nestle into the curve of her ass, the muscles inside her adjusting and quivering around my swollen tip.
She strokes my back, wrapping her hips slowly around my waist as she moans at the increase of movement. “Oh my God, Jared. You’re so … deep.”
We both swallow and breathe, trying to maintain some composure but knowing that when I finally move everything will be over. Our lips meet, soft and hard melding and mixing until I don’t know where she ends and I begin. Each time our tongues meet, a zap throttles down my spine, pulling at my balls and bringing me dangerously close to the edge.
“I love you.” I look down at her, short of breath at being inside her and looking into her eyes all at once.
“I love you.” She palms my cheek and softly touches her lips to mine.
“Hang on tight, to my shoulders. This might kill us both. Fuck, you’re so tight …”
I can’t hold off anymore, I need to pound until kingdom come. Peyton starts to shake, starting from her legs and then all the way through her fingertips.
“Fuck … yes … now, Jared, now … harder … Oh. My. God …”
I smile into her neck, pumping my hips so vigorously it’s like I’m trying to win a gold medal or something in the sport of fucking. She’s about to come, and then …
Jesus H. Christ. Her pussy vises me, milking me until I can’t tell who came first or if it will ever stop.
I’m falling into her, nothing to catch me on the way down. And I’m so happy about it, I’ll take the injuries at the bottom.
22
Peyton
“How long exactly has it been?” I stroke Jared’s back as he gently tickles my thigh hitched up around his hip.
We’re exhausted, bone tired after our third go-round of the night, that he hasn’t even bothered to roll over. He’s still inside of me, both of us kind of half-laying on our sides in a euphoric coma.
“I really don’t want to talk about this.”
He’s embarrassed. I know it has to have been a long time, simply because the first two times he could barely make it past me coming before he was spilling hot ropes of his come into me. Or well … not into me. But a condom. Which was … new for me. And us. I’m not such a responsible person. Or at least I wasn’t. The guys I was with, well, it was kind of expected that one would not be worn. So for him to do it without even asking … it’s just so, sweet. He cares for my well-being, wants to be safe with me.
“You can be honest. It’s not like I didn’t come. With that monster hanging between your legs, there is no way I could not. Just tell me.” Part of me is oddly curious.
Jared mumbles into the pillow beside my head.
“What was that?”
“Four years.”
I can barely make out the sounds, but when I do, I gasp. I’m too spent and sore to move, but I do slap his shoulder. “You haven’t slept with anyone since … me?! Are you crazy?!”
“More like madly in love but okay, let’s go with crazy.” He looks at me and smiles.
That smile does something to my chest. Melts it. Turns it to marshmallow mush. Makes every cell and vein in my skin go warm and fuzzy. He hasn’t been with anyone since London. Suddenly, guilt swamps me. But in the next second, I push it away. We weren’t together, it wasn’t wrong to be with other people. If anything, it helped me see how much Jared and I were really meant for each other. If anything, I feel guilt at how long I waited to come back to him.
“Are you insane? Are we insane?” I chew my lip, because being uncertain is not a normal feeling for me.
“Well, I think I just made you go insane when I put my pinky in your ass as you came around my cock.” Jared’s face is the picture of seriousness while he dirty talks me.
My insides flush and I feel his words radiate through me, until the slight burn at the ring of my bottom flares up again. It was delicious and naughty.
“Why is it that I want to be free as a bird, but when it comes to you and the things you can do to me on a mattress, I surrender?” I may be half-joking, but I’ve always wondered what my weakness was with him.
“Because I see you.” He could have made another sexual joke, but the seriousness on his face now is real. “I know you don’t really want freedom, or to be a gypsy. You want love. And no one has dared to pin you down, to make you sit still for five seconds so that they can tell you how incredible you are. Sure, other men have told you that, I’m sure of it. But they never really saw you. I see through that act you put on, the cocky walls of defense you throw up. I love you, Peyton … but you’re not the bold, unrestrained woman the outside world thinks you are. You’re scared. You’re scared to love anything too much for fear that it will leave you.”
I have to choke down the sob welling in my throat. Jared holds my head in his hands, as if he’s trying to get me to really listen to him.
He stares so deeply into my eyes that I feel like he’s looking right at my heart. “I will never leave you. I will never stop loving you.”
My body is so exhausted from crying and sex that all I can do is lay there while he holds me, listening to the sound of our beating hearts. I’ve never felt this safe or this loved, and I know he means everything he’s telling me to the core of his being. I’ve never had anyone be this sure of me, or of their feelings towards me.
After what seems like a while, Jared pulls out of me and disentangles, heading for the bathroom. When he comes back, the condom that was once rolled over his length is gone. I can’t help but be mesmerized by the impressive appendage hanging between his thighs as he comes back to bed. He crawls in and pulls me under as well, moving my body just where he wants it. We’re wrapped up in each other in the middle of the bed. The clock on his bedside table reads 3:17 a.m.
I’m just about to talk, to let Jared in even more … when his stomach rumbles. And I clam up. I need to let him in, need to talk to someone about my family, or lack thereof. And I finally feel like it … but, not now. This night has been perfect; it’s kismet and fate. I want it to stay perfect.
“Have you ever had frozen pizza at three a.m.?” I rub his back as I chuckle into his neck.
“Of course I have. But I’ve never done it while my woman sits on the kitchen counter in nothing but my shirt.”
Jared peeks up at me, his brown depths filled with faux innocence and sexy amusement. Our bodies meet at several points, my fingers traveling over his m
asculine form. He’s made me scream, pant and climax multiple times this evening, and still something low in my stomach tightens as I run a stray pinky down the victory muscles leading to his cock.
“Who says I won’t just sit up there naked?”
One second I’m laying in the bed, snuggled under the covers and feeling on some beautiful man muscles. And the next … I’m over Jared’s shoulder staring at a very naked, very nice, ass while my very naked, very nice, ass is straight up in the air.
“JARED!”
“I think I like you like this. I can spank you whenever you talk back.” He swats my ass, smoothing his hand over the sting as need floods me once again.
He descends the steps, not letting me go. “Do you think Gail will let us add this routine to the tour? I think it would definitely draw a crowd.”
“If you don’t put me down, you’re going to have more than just a finger up your ass.”
Cold chills radiate through my bones as my butt hits the marble counter. “Oh my God, it’s freezing.”
Jared moves between my open legs, teasing them apart until his semi-hard cock brushes against my over-sensitive clit. “I can warm you up …”
And then his stomach rumbles. Again. “Well, I guess my body knew that line was super cheesy.”
I laugh. “Well, if a girl can’t have dick … pizza is the next best thing.”
A rolling laugh bubbles up from his chest, and it’s … mesmerizing. When Jared has his guard down, hell, even when he doesn’t … he’s incredible.
“Okay, then. Cheese or pepperoni, hot stuff?”
“Are you kidding? Here is a small thing to memorize about me. The more meat, the better.” I wink at my innuendo.
Jared pulls a box out of the freezer and pre-heats the oven. “Pepperoni it is. By the way, this is the extent of my cooking. If we’re getting personal, you should probably know that.”
He’s making an effort, and my insides melt a little at his cute factoid. “Sometimes I sleep with my socks on.”
Grasping Air (Flipped Book 2) Page 10