“What, don’t talk crazy. I love that you have this picture.” He groans and from the sound of it, I know he’s looking at it now too. “That we do. And I can’t tell you how much better I feel about you ogling my wicked ripped abs since I’ve been rocking a semi every time I even think about your golden lasso.”
“Shut up,” I say with a grin, but just the thought is enough to have that now-familiar heat churning low in my belly and my legs pressing together.
“About the panties.” No way he was going to drop it. “What do they say today? ‘Wrong way’ across the ass? ‘Slippery when wet’? More superheroes?”
I can’t even believe I’m doing this, but I inch down my leggings to peek at whatever I put on this morning. Rolling my eyes, I sigh.
I shouldn’t.
“I hear you debating over there. Just tell me. Or you could snap another picture. That would be totally okay too.”
“Rux!”
“Tell,” he urges, his voice lower, with shades of bedroom I’ve never paid attention to before.
I mumble my answer, burying my face in my hands even though he can’t see me.
“What was that?” he coughs out. “I could swear you said, ‘happy meal.’”
“They were from a bachelorette party! And I swear most of my panties don’t say stuff like that. The ones from yesterday had Tinkerbell on them.”
“Tink? Damn, that’s weirdly hot. Also, not sure I believe you. May have to take a tour of the panty drawer when I get back tomorrow. Eleven work for you?”
My cheeks are starting to hurt from how hard I’m smiling. “Straight from the airport, huh.”
“Hell, yes.” God, he’s giving me that low rumbly voice again. “And would I be right to assume I’ll get to meet the much-revered Bob during this tour?”
I gasp, but it’s mostly laugh. “You would be wrong. Bob lives in the back of my nightstand.”
A sort of strangled sound comes through the line. “Cammy, you can’t tell me that. You tell me ‘no’ and call me a perv.”
“What? You brought him up!”
“Yeah, but then you told me where he lives. And now I’m going to be thinking about it. And I really shouldn’t be thinking about how very close to your bed he is. How easy it would be for you to roll over and get him.” His voice goes even lower, all traces of that joking tone gone. “What you’d do with him.”
I swallow, hard. My belly is tight. I should change the subject, but my mind is suddenly empty of anything but Rux thinking about me like that. God, it’s making me hot.
“Fuck, just this once… and I won’t ask again… after I left, did you?”
I open my mouth, but Rux cuts me off with a sharp, “No! Don’t tell me. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. Double fuck, you know I want to know. But Sunshine, I think we’re in agreement it’s better I don’t, right?”
“Rux?”
“Cammy.” He sounds tortured. And I feel that one word all the way through me.
“Bob and I are on a break,” I say, even though I know it’s a mistake.
Another lower groan. “Tell me why.”
“I think you know why.”
His voice is so low, the rough scrape of it is almost enough to get me there without any assist at all. “Say it.”
I’m playing with fire. But I can’t stop myself from giving him the truth. “Because after what happened with us, it wouldn’t be enough. And I’m not ready to let go of what we did yet.”
Chapter 11
Rux
I thought about going home. Told myself I could use the rest after flying out of New York hours before dawn. That I should wait until Matty gets home from school and go over then. But somehow, I end up back at Cammy’s place, a sort of electric charge running beneath my skin as I wait for her to open the door.
And yeah, I’m being weird with the waiting thing. Not my style. I’ve got a key and I’m not shy about using it. But today, knocking seems like the way to go just in case she’s feeling weird or embarrassed or any of the other shit I hope to hell she isn’t feeling.
That conversation last night wasn’t what it should have been.
Yeah, we joked and caught up, but just the sound of her voice had me half hard. And that was before I broke every rule I’d set for myself and started working for details I knew better than to think were mine.
Like about Bob.
So much for the road trip giving me time to get back on track. I’m not sure my brain will ever work right around this girl again.
Not that I’ll let on.
No way. We’re friends. The best kind. And I’m not going to let a few errant boners get in the way of something that means more to me than just about anything on this planet.
So while I might be dying thinking about what her panties say today… I won’t ask.
I won’t.
The door opens and the breath I’ve been holding whooshes out. That smile.
“Knocking?” she asks, leaning into the open door, those lush lips set at a slant that—man, yeah—really works for me.
I try with the whole “eyes up here” business, but damn, she’s wearing this cropped little sweater with jeans, and the way she’s standing leaves about an inch of bare skin exposed on one side.
“Rux?”
My eyes snap up and guilt swamps me.
Friends, fucker.
“Hey, Cammy.” Dropping a kiss at her temple, I step around her into the apartment, trying not to look at that spot next to the door or think about how deep my fingers were inside her last time I was here. Trying not to think about how wet and tight she was. Those desperate little sounds she made.
Damn.
“Did you come straight from the airport?” she asks, following me in.
“Yeah, I thought…” Shit, I don’t even know what I was thinking. And worse, now that I’m back in her place, it’s like I’ve never been here before. I don’t know where to go. Where to sit or stand.
Every spot seems rife with untapped sexual potential. The couch, yeah, I want to punch myself in the face for what I’m thinking when I look at it. The kitchen table, where I’ve sat with her and Matty so many times, I’m mentally defiling with images of Cammy sitting on the edge, bare legs spread while I devour her happy meal. The fridge, I’d back her up against it, fill her with hard thrusts. I could sit on the overstuffed chair—it’s built for one, but it would be so easy to tuck a finger into the pocket of those sexy jeans and tug her in until she straddled my lap.
No matter where I sit it’s going to feel like I’m putting some damn move on her.
That’s it. I need to leave.
Turning to tell her I’ll be back when Matty gets home, I stop short when I catch those big blues jumping back to mine, looking so guilty.
So hot.
What was I going to say?
Her teeth sink into the flesh of that lush bottom lip, her eyes dipping to my mouth. Lingering there long enough I can almost taste her kiss again. Christ, I want to taste her again.
“Cammy,” I choke out, fighting the muscles that are straining to reach out and touch.
“You’re not looking at me like a friend,” she says, and fuuuck, the way she says it—a little breathless—isn’t helping.
“Maybe the road trip wasn’t long enough.” Or maybe I shouldn’t have asked about Bob or what her panties looked like.
And then I’m staring at the fly of her jeans, wondering what’s underneath.
Don’t ask.
“Hearts.”
“Huh?” Stop staring, man.
Only how the hell am I supposed to stop when her hands are sliding over her hips, her thumbs skimming beneath the waist.
I gulp watching the denim inch lower on one side, lower. Low enough to expose the fitted white cotton patterned with tiny red hearts.
And then it’s my hand reaching out, my fingers skimming over the waist of her jeans before hooking over the brass button. My knuckles grazing the baby-soft skin below her navel
as I tug her closer.
And it’s her fingers skimming light over my forearms to where my shirt is rolled at the cuffs. Her hands smoothing across my chest, dropping lower and then pushing up, up. High enough to slip around the back of my neck.
What is it about feeling her fingers linked like that?
There aren’t a lot of ways to read this. If the girl in my arms was some bunny from two years ago, I’d already be looking for a private space. But this isn’t a bunny. It’s Cammy who dreams of happily ever afters and the kind of forever I couldn’t live with ruining. And so even though I’m starting to sweat from holding myself back, I keep fucking doing it.
Ducking my head, I look into her eyes. “Cammy, this isn’t what you want.” Is it?
“What if I want you to keep looking at me exactly like you are?”
Damn it. Don’t ask. “How am I looking at you?”
The pink tip of her tongue touches her bottom lip. “Like you want to finish what we started as bad as I do.”
I can’t breathe, can’t form words. I need to let her go, only instead of setting her back, my fists ball in the sides of her jeans.
“Just once,” I manage. It won’t be enough. I know it, like I know how to breathe. But I don’t care. I meant what I said, I’ll give her anything.
Her eyes break from mine, following her hands back down my chest to where she starts playing with the luckiest button in all the land. “Or I mean, maybe more than once?”
My heart stops beating, then starts again, pumping at double time. Filling my chest with something so fucking good.
“I mean, I’m not asking you to be my real boyfriend. I know that’s not—it’s not what either of us want from each other. But maybe, since there’s this thing between us. And we’ve already crossed the line. Maybe for a while, we could just… have some fun together.”
“Some fun?” I ask, my fingers hooking in the front of her jeans as I pull her closer.
Her eyes flare and then go hazy, telling me she doesn’t mind my caveman slipping his leash, just a little.
“For a while. Not forever. I promise. I mean, so long as we’re careful around Matty.”
I nod. “So instead of going back to being just friends, maybe we have some fun being more than friends.” She knows how I feel. Where my lines are drawn. Jesus, could we really do that? “For how long?”
She shakes her head. “For however long it feels right.”
I think about the way she came apart for me the last time I was here, the sounds she made. And I’m pretty sure I can keep her feeling right forever.
Not forever. Cammy’s too smart to invest that beautiful heart in a man she knows can’t give her the future she wants. And I know myself. I care about her too much to even want her to try.
“For however long it feels good,” I agree, moving my hands back to her hips and sliding them down and around below her ass. I pick her up and start toward the bedroom. “Starting now.”
Cammy
Rux’s hands are everywhere. Cradling my face, gripping my ass, racing over my body like he can’t decide what he wants to touch first. How he wants to hold me. Touch me.
And I’m the same. I don’t know where to start or stop with him. Heck, that’s not true. I don’t want to stop with him at all.
I want it all. I want every bit of him I can get and I want it all now.
We haven’t set a time limit on what we’re doing, but it’s not going to last forever. There’s a limit on this, and God, I want to make the most of every minute.
So yeah, my hands are racing up his body, bunching in his hair, fanning out over his cheeks as we devour each other.
He picks me up, holding me against him with one arm banded around my lower back and the other below my ass.
“I have condoms,” I gasp against his lips.
“Good, I only have three in my wallet.”
Three?
“Matty gets home from school at quarter to four.”
“That’s five hours from now. How many did you buy?”
“Ten?”
“Nice, we probably shouldn’t have to go out for more, then.”
He’s joking. I’m sure he’s joking.
Isn’t he?
My back meets the mattress and then Rux is on top of me, pulling me farther up the bed with the strength of that one arm behind me.
Wow.
And then we’re rolling together, kissing and touching, sighing and gasping. Pulling at each other’s clothes like neither one of us can believe we’ll get another chance at this.
Like at any second, it might end.
Like we’re starving for each other.
His mouth moving over my neck and chest like he can’t get enough. My knee slides higher, my hips shifting restlessly beneath him until he slots his other leg between mine, bringing us into alignment.
I moan my relief when he draws back and then rocks forward, dragging the thick ridge of his cock over me just right.
It’s so good. So hot, when he straightens his arms and, bracing above me, watches as he does it again and again.
Everything inside me is winding tight, ramping higher, but I don’t want to get off like a teenager in the back of a car. “I want you inside me.”
His eyes close, head dropping between his shoulders before coming back up.
“Sunshine.”
And then he’s back down the bed, dropping wet, openmouthed kisses along the way. I arch up to undo my bra, and the sound Rux makes has me clenching hard around the space that aches to be filled. He works my jeans down my legs and whips his shirt overhead and shucks his own jeans and underwear after tossing a square foil packet toward the top of the bed. Coming back up for the heart-covered panties partially responsible for getting us here in the first place, he presses a kiss above my sex and nuzzles his nose into the cotton before slipping them down my legs.
He starts prowling his way back up. More kisses, more hungry growls.
I know where he’s going as he licks and bites his way up my inner thighs, getting closer and closer to where I need him most.
But not like that.
Catching his hair between my fingers, I nudge him higher.
“Like this, I can’t wait.”
His eyes meet mine and hold. A nod. He makes fast work of the condom, rolling it on.
“Wait.” My hand moves to the center of his chest. “Is that as far up as it goes?”
Rux looks down at himself, then back at me. And the smile on his face is pure Rux and makes me hotter than I’ve ever been.
“It’s on all the way.”
“It’s safe like that?” I mean, I want this. But one unplanned baby is enough for me.
He nods. No teasing. His hand runs up his length and more liquid heat spills through my center at the sight.
Wow.
Slipping his fingers between my legs, he strokes. “So wet for me.” He presses one finger inside and I rock up into the touch. It’s so good, but I want more.
He gives me another finger, pushing in again, stretching me in ways I know won’t compete with him.
“I want to feel you inside me. I need it, Rux.”
His mouth meets mine and he lines up, positioning himself at my opening. He’s so much bigger than his fingers.
“I’ll go slow,” he says, breaching my body with the heavy length of his cock.
“Rux,” I gasp, my breath stalling in my chest, my eyes going wide with shock.
He’s big. Bigger than anyone I’ve ever been with. Not that there have been a lot. But it’s different.
The pressure is intense, stealing my breath as Rux eases in then back, giving me a taste of what’s to come but not all at once. Letting me adjust to the way he’s stretching me beyond what I’d thought my body could take and then taking it away… so by the time he gives it back, I’m desperate for it.
“You’re so— Oh God.”
He eases off. “Too much?”
I shake my head, pulling my heel up th
e back of his thigh, like I could somehow hold him in place. “No. Or yes? Don’t stop.”
That smile. That smile kills me.
He’s still easing in and out, still teasing me just like in my dreams.
“You want my cock? You want to feel me so deep inside, you don’t know where I stop and you begin?”
He licks into my mouth, his tongue slick against mine. “You want me to give you all you can take, and then give you more?”
“Yes. Rux, yes!”
He’s deeper now, and God I can barely breathe with the way he’s filling me. My hands are everywhere. His shoulders, his back. His hair, gliding across his jaw and then caught in the gentle clasp of his teeth as he finds the deepest place inside me and holds.
“There,” I gasp, my body spasming around the stretch and strain of him so big within me.
“Here?”
Clenching and hugging like it wants more.
“Please.”
“Anything you want, Sunshine.” And he pushes in again, long and deep, butting up against the limit of what I can take.
“Fuck, you’re so tight. Don’t want to hurt you.”
“So good,” I pant, desperate for more. “Not hurting me.”
This man could never hurt me.
“Harder.” I want to feel him for days.
He gives me what I ask for, watching me with eyes that track everything. “You like that?”
“So much.”
“You want me to make you come?”
“Yes!”
He leans down and kisses me again, deep and dirty and so freaking good.
“You get this first one easy, because I’m going to die if I don’t feel you coming all over my cock. But then you’re going to have to work for the next one. Okay?”
I’m nodding, frantic. Because he could probably ask me to sign over my bank account to him and if I thought he was going to take me there, I’d do it.
And then he’s sliding in and out, hitting that spot with every thrust, making my breath catch and my body shatter.
When my muscles go lax, he slows his movements and leans down to kiss me again. He makes love to my mouth, and it’s so sweet, so thorough, so good that, already, I’m winding tight again.
DIRTY REBOUND Page 8