by Amy Lamont
“Never?” I asked, a gentle smile curving my lips.
“I think we’ve waited long enough, princess. I don’t plan on wasting another day.”
I couldn’t hold myself back. I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him for all I was worth.
“I’m going to hold you to that,” I said against his lips when we finally came up for air.
“I bet you will.” He reached up and ran a hand through my hair, letting the silky strands slide through his fingers. “After all, you’re a badass biker babe.”
A little while later, Hunter pressed a soft kiss to the juncture of my neck and shoulder, and then nipped the muscle there before pulling back to look at me. “Want to hole up here with me for another day?”
I blinked and found myself staring at his mouth. A sensual haze filled my head, and I fought to make sense of what he asked me when all I really want to do was have his mouth back on me. And his hands. And his…
“Katelyn,” Hunter said with a low laugh.
I shook my head. “Umm, okay, staying here.” I closed my eyes and thought about my day tomorrow. “I can call in to work one more day, but I have to be in my class tomorrow night.”
“I think we can manage that.” He leaned down and stole a quick kiss. “So, yes to staying?”
I glanced down at myself still in yesterday’s rumpled clothes before looking back up at him from underneath my eyelashes. “I don’t have any clothes with me.”
He offered me a wicked grin. “Princess, you won’t need them.”
And with that promise, he launched himself at me, pressing me down on the couch, his mouth slamming down on mine, his hands going to the buttons on my sweater.
“I didn’t say yes yet,” I managed to breath against his mouth.
He grinned without moving his mouth from mine. “Let me see if I can convince you.”
He didn’t need to make that offer twice. My hands dove for the hem of his t-shirt and underneath, sliding along the warm muscles of his abdomen. “Okay. Convince me.”
“My pleasure, princess.”
He spent the rest of the day and well into the night making good on his words. And I was convinced long before he was done with me.
Epilogue
Two weeks until Christmas
I stepped out of the bathroom and into my bedroom, adjusting my stocking top through my dress. When I lifted my head, I stopped short and my breath fled my lungs in a rush.
Hunter was stretched out on top of the covers on my bed. His eyes were closed, one hand tucked under his head, the other resting on his stomach.
I started at the top of his head, my gaze taking in the dark hair pushed back from his face, the chiseled jaw and firm lips, and continued the journey over his hard muscled body.
I usually loved him best in nothing at all, but this…this took my breath away. He wore a black, modern tuxedo that made him look like he just jumped out of some 1940s movie. The jacket clung to his shoulders. The white shirt contrasted with his natural tan. His long legs were stretched out and crossed at the ankles.
Looking at him, my pulse sped up and my heart beat so hard, I was surprised he couldn’t hear it. I marveled at the fact that even after eleven months together, my body reacted to just the sight of him. Would I ever get tired of looking at this man?
Never. If it hadn’t happened in the last twelve years, I didn’t think it ever would.
“You’re going to get all rumpled and Paige will have your head,” I said softly.
A smile teased over his lips, but he didn’t open his eyes. “Wouldn’t want to incur the wrath of the wedding planner from hell.”
I giggled. He wasn’t wrong. “And yet, you still lay there, daring to get your tux wrinkled.”
He turned his head on my pillow and opened his eyes at the same time he opened his mouth to speak.
But the words never came.
He surged up off the bed and stalked over to where I stood just outside the bathroom doorway. The predatory glint in his eyes made me take a step backward. But before I could get any farther away, he reached out and wrapped his hands around my wrists.
“Jesus, princess.” His voice was a growl. His hands slid slowly up my arms to cup my shoulders, his eyes traveling up and down my body.
“I guess you like the dress?” I tilted my head and batted my eyelashes, reveling in his reaction even while I teased him.
“It’s not the dress. It’s the way you fill out the dress.” He pulled me closer, his hands drifting down my back over the silky red material, and then sliding even lower.
Something fluttered in my belly. I still felt like pinching myself every time Hunter made it clear how desirable he found me. And I had reason to feel like that often.
I lifted up on my toes and kissed the edge of his jaw. “Happy you like it.”
“I like you.” He pressed a soft kiss to the corner of my lips as his hands continued to roam.
This time the flutter left a warm pulse of need in its wake. What this man could do to me with only a few words.
His hands rubbed up and down over my ass. “Fuck, what do you have on under this dress?”
I pouted up at him. “That’s supposed to be a surprise. For later.”
He froze, his eyes shooting to mine. “Don’t think I’ll be able to wait that long, princess.”
I pushed his chest, for all the good that did. It was like trying to push a mountain. “You’re going to have to wait. We can’t be late. I’m in the bridal party.”
He slid his hands over the red satin and down the sides of my legs. He used his fingers to start inching my long dress up. “I just want to see.”
I rolled my eyes, but had to struggle against the wave of desire that fought to pull me under. God, would I ever stop feeling this needy, aching longing for him? “I’m onto you, buddy. I know you’re after more than just a peek under my dress.”
He grinned down at me and the look was so boyish, something I’d only seen from him in the last few months, my heart flipped over in my chest. I fought the urge to do a happy dance because I knew with a confidence that shocked me that the new lightness, the ease that Hunter never had before, was there because of me. I gave him that.
And with that, all my resolve flew out the window. So what if I showed up to the wedding of one of my best friend’s with sex hair if it meant I could put that look on Hunter’s face?
I stepped back and Hunter’s hands dropped to my waist.
I bit my lip provocatively and gave him a flirtatious look from underneath my lashes. “You have been a good sport about all the wedding activities, though.”
He nodded, his smile growing wider. “I really have.”
I laughed and shook my head at him. “Hands off. You just get a peek now.”
Hunter pulled his hands off my body and held them up, palms out in front of him. I giggled. He looked like he was being held at gunpoint instead of being offered a view of my goodies.
I reached behind myself to the zipper of my dress.
I eased the zipper down and then slipped the straps off my shoulders before lifting my eyes to Hunter’s. His jaw clenched and his hands dropped to his sides, clamped into fists as if he fought to keep from reaching for me.
I gave him my sex goddess smile, the one I’d discovered after a few months with him, and with a small push and a wiggle of my hips, the silky material slithered down my body to pool at my feet.
I stood in front of him wearing a black bustier that pushed my breasts up as if they were on offer, and hugged my torso down to my hips. The bustier was made of a floral lace meant to allow teasing glimpses of the flesh underneath. Paired with it, I had on tiny black lace panties that left most of my ass bare, and thigh high black stockings topped with lace. All meant to tempt and seduce, and from the look on Hunter’s face, it succeeded.
I could see the moment Hunter’s control snapped. He shot forward and grabbed my hand.
�
�No, wait.” I shook myself free of him and took a second to gather up my dress and lay it neatly over the foot of my bed, smoothing it out as I did so. I might not mind facing Paige’s wrath if we were a few minutes later than her strict schedule allowed, but no way was I showing up with my dress a mess.
From behind me, a choked groaning sound came and a private little grin touched my mouth. Hunter must have gotten a glimpse of everything my panties didn’t cover.
As soon as I finished, before I could turn back to him, Hunter was at my back.
“I should punish you,” he said in a low voice close to my ear.
I turned my head to look at him over my shoulder. “For what?”
“You were going to make me wait until after the wedding to see all this.”
I twisted to face him. “It was supposed to be a surprise. I take it you like it?”
He growled. Growled. I wanted to laugh out loud. He made me feel like the most desirable, most amazing woman on the planet. Like nobody but me could do this to him.
I leaned forward and nipped his chin. “Do you know how much I love you?” I whispered.
He froze for several long beats, and then his arms clamped around me, sweeping me off my feet as his mouth crashed down on mine. He stroked his tongue along my lips until I opened for him and then plunged inside. I moaned into his mouth and met his tongue with mine, as he carried me across the room.
He dropped me onto my desk, and before I could think or act, he tore his mouth from mine and bent to strip my panties from me. He dropped to his knees and had his mouth on me in an instant. And he didn’t fool around.
He used his hands to open me to his mouth as he found my clit with his tongue and teeth. He sucked it into his mouth and I arched up off the desk, crying out loud. He slid two fingers into my already damp center, and I bit down hard on my lip to keep from crying out again. I shook with my need and within minutes he’d pushed me close to an explosive orgasm.
But before I went over the edge, he stood and undid the button and zipper on his pants. He leaned into me and nipped my earlobe. “I can’t wait another minute, baby. You’re making me crazy.”
“Don’t wait. I want you inside me.” My breath came in pants and I tilted my hips up to meet him.
In one swift thrust he slid into me to the hilt. My head fell back and my eyes drifted closed as he grabbed my hips and pounded into me. I fought to open my eyes so I could watch him, see every expression that crossed his face as he drove himself into me.
“So good, baby,” he gritted out as he ran his mouth across my jaw and down my neck. He leaned back slightly and looked down, his eyes grazing over my swelling breasts and down over my belly to the spot where we were joined. “So beautiful.”
My inner muscles clamped down on him as a long, low moan broke from me.
“Love you, Katelyn,” he said, his arms sliding around me and pulling me more tightly to his body. The new angle drove him deeper and I raised my legs higher to wrap around his waist. “Love you so much, baby.”
I held on tightly to his shoulders, clutching the jacket of his tuxedo, and tucked my face into his neck, inhaling the clean, masculine scent of him. My heart squeezed in reaction to his words, while my body throbbed to the rhythm he set as he moved inside me.
He filled every part of me—my senses, my body, my heart—until I burst wide open for him. White-hot fire coursed through me as I held him, calling out his name as I came, riding the waves of my orgasm out right there on top of my desk.
As I started floating back down to earth, Hunter continued to move inside me. His short, deep thrusts sent tiny trembling aftershocks through me. I raised my face from his neck, my eyes going up to watch his face, so beautiful as he found his own pleasure. He moved once, twice, and again as the skin across his cheekbones went taut. I could feel every muscle in his body tense as he let go inside me with a guttural groan.
“Love you, princess.” He kissed my temple, one hand sliding over the lacy material covering my back and the other sliding up under my hair to hold my neck.
“I love you, too, Hunter Lawson.” And I still marveled that I got to say that to him out loud and without fear of him rejecting my feelings.
“I guess I better get you to the church.” He eased himself out me while I steadied myself on his shoulders. “Sit tight.”
He gave me another light kiss on my temple and then a more lingering one on my bare shoulder before he stepped into the bathroom.
In a minute, he was back with a warm washcloth and gently pressed it between my legs, cleaning me.
“I love the idea that you’ll be carrying some of me with you for the rest of the day,” he said as he nuzzled my neck.
I smiled and leaned my forehead against his temple. We’d tossed away the condoms, using just my shot for birth control, not long after we’d admitted our feelings for each other. I trusted Hunter implicitly.
And he still hadn’t lost his wonder over being able to slide inside me with nothing between us. Something about his reaction made me feel completely cherished.
After a long moment where we simply held onto each other, reveling in the closeness, he pulled back with a sigh. “I guess I better get you back in that dress.”
He helped me hop down off the desk, and went and picked my dress up from the bed.
“Seems a real shame,” he said, letting his eyes skim over me in just my bustier and stockings one last time.
I bent and stepped into my panties before grinning up at him. “Don’t worry. I have it on good authority you’ll be seeing more of it later.”
“How much later?” He helped me back into the dress, stepping behind me to ease my zipper up.
“Well, there’s the ceremony at the church, and then photos over at the park, cocktail hour and the reception.”
He groaned, making me laugh.
“Maybe if you and my brother behave yourselves, you and I can find a few minutes for some alone time during the reception.”
I shook my head thinking of my brother’s reaction to Hunter and I. I’d been so nervous he’d be totally against me hooking up with his best friend. But when we shared the news, he’d responded by clapping Hunter on the back and welcoming him to the family. Then his hand tightened on Hunter’s neck and Logan’s grin had widened into a completely evil grin as he leaned in and said, “You hurt her, I’ll kill you.”
And that had been it. It was as if Hunter and I had always been a couple. Hell, in Logan’s mind we probably were since he’d known how we both felt about each other.
Hunter pressed a line of kisses over my shoulder and neck. I could feel his smile against my skin.
“I knew there was a reason I loved you,” he said.
“Because I give in to all your pervy ideas?” I teased.
His arms closed tightly around me. “You say that like you don’t come up with pervy ideas of your own.”
I giggled and turned in his arms, raking a critical gaze over him. “How come you look perfectly put together after that. I must look like I just…just…”
“Got well-fucked on your desktop?” He pulled me close and pressed a smiling kiss on my lips.
My face heated and I pushed my fingers against his mouth. “You don’t have to say it like that.”
He gave one of his low chuckles that never failed to send a zing along my nerve endings. “How can you still be so shy after all these months? You would think it was the first time I had you up on that desk.”
I rolled my eyes at his teasing. It’s not like I could protest. In the last eleven months, he’d had me on pretty much every flat surface in my apartment and his. If my friends knew all the things that went on in our kitchen, they’d never eat in there again.
I tugged out of his arms. “Let me go fix myself so we can get on the road.”
He snagged my hand and turned me to face him. His face was suddenly serious as his eyes roamed over me. “You look beautiful. You always look bea
utiful.”
I swallowed hard at his tone and the tender expression he wore, something inside me melting at his words.
“Hunter.” The word came out on a whisper.
He stepped close to me again. “I was going to wait until later or tomorrow or…I don’t know, some perfect time.”
I moved my eyes up to his, confused.
“But I can’t imagine a more perfect time than right this minute.” He slid his hands down my arms and gripped my hands. “Katelyn Murphy, I think I’ve loved you since I first set eyes on you standing in your parents living room with that goofy shirt, shiny braids and those big blue eyes looking up at me.”
My heart stuttered in my chest.
“I didn’t think I’d ever have a chance with you,” he said. “And then one day, eleven months ago, you turned up at my bar and turned my life inside out.”
I bit my lip and could feel hot tears prick the back of my eyes.
“There were a few moments, I wasn’t sure we were going to make it.”
I blinked at his words and a single tear escaped to slide down my cheek. I knew exactly what he was talking about. I’d resisted telling my parents for several months after Hunter and I started seeing each other, afraid of their disapproval or jinxing our new relationship.
But then I realized that hiding the relationship from my parents confirmed a lot of Hunter’s old fears. He thought I was ashamed of him, and it was driving a wedge between us.
I’d brought him to dinner with my newly reconciled parents the next night. Turns out my fears there had been pretty silly, too. They loved Hunter. And it didn’t take him long to prove to them he wasn’t looking at me like another notch on his bedpost.
“But we seemed to always find a way.” He twisted my hands around and pulled them up so our clasped hands rested between us. “And I think we’ve proven more than once that we’re willing to put each other first.”
I nodded at his words, my throat too clogged with emotion to respond.
We had. After a few months of trying to see each other while I worked and went to school in the city and he tended to all his business interests upstate, we knew something had to give. And we knew neither of us wanted the thing we sacrificed to be our relationship.