by Max Monroe
“Show me your bedroom, Gem,” he whispered directly into my ear. His chest was pressed to my back, and I took a hearty inhale through my nose just to savor the delicious smell of him.
Soft yet strong. Woodsy yet clean. He smelled like a goddamn forest mixed with sunshine and vanilla. It was intoxicating.
He was intoxicating.
Without another word, I took his hand in mine and led the way, through the living room, down the short hall, and into my bedroom.
Coffee wasn’t on the agenda tonight.
But seeing Leo Landry naked certainly was.
The room was shrouded in twilight and shadows, and it took a minute for my eyes to adjust.
Before I could make my way to the bedside lamp, Leo wrapped his strong arms around my back, and with one gentle pull and a twist, I was in his arms and his blue eyes stared down at me.
His hand moved into my hair, and instantly, goose bumps peppered my skin.
That strong hand slid down my cheekbones to my lips, and his index finger paused for a beat, just barely touching my mouth. “I fucking love these lips,” he whispered.
He didn’t give me any time to respond.
His lips to mine, the kissing was officially restarted.
Deep. Heady. Urgent. He kissed with purpose, with passion, but also, with this reckless abandon like he couldn’t get enough of me.
And his big hands, well, they were everywhere.
In my hair. Down my arms. Cupping my breasts. Gripping my ass.
I moaned, and my hips made a bid to fuse with his as I moved closer and pressed my body against his.
I was a fan of whatever Leo was putting down, and we’d yet to take our clothes off. If Leo were a type of alcohol, he’d be a fine fucking wine. Robust and delicious and so damn strong, it went straight to your head.
He sure as hell went straight to my head.
And, good God, our bodies fit together as if we were made to lose ourselves in one another.
Next thing I knew, I was in his arms again as he carried me toward the bed and let me fall onto the mattress with a soft bounce.
I giggled. Leo smirked. And we locked eyes for a moment, just enough for us to feel safe with one another. Just enough for our intense feelings for one another to be validated. Just enough for both of us to understand that what we were feeling was one hundred percent mutual. Just enough to turn this romp from fucking into something more.
My breath came out in pants as he undid my jeans and pulled them off, and then he sank to his knees at the bottom of the bed.
He wouldn’t be there for long as his mouth followed a line back up, but the sight of him down there for even a moment had my chest ready to explode.
Slowly, he kissed my skin from my toes upward, and his hands were on my legs, always just a little higher than the kisses. My back arched off the bed from the feel of it, from the anticipation, from the overwhelming intensity of it all.
It didn’t take long for the rest of my clothes to disappear from my body and Leo’s to end up on my bedroom floor. We kissed and we touched and we felt one another, until the mere feeling of our skin moving softly together made me insane with need.
“Now,” I whispered and dug my fingers into the bare skin of his back. “Now, Leo,” I panted as I ground my hips toward his.
I could feel how aroused he was between my thighs, big and thick and throbbing, and I wanted to know what he felt like inside of me.
Scratch that. I needed to know.
Leo sat up on his knees, grabbed his jeans from the floor, and reached into the pocket to pull out a condom. I watched with rapt, fucking riveted attention as he sheathed himself and gave his cock a squeeze at the base as he finished rolling.
He was big and thick and hard in all of the right places. From the tips of his toes to his perfect cock, he looked good naked. Every single blessed inch of him.
I barely blinked as he fell forward and found me swiftly, teasing just the tip inside until he had a good seat and then sliding smooth and slow until he hit the end.
I’d never felt so deliciously full in my entire life.
“You like my cock inside of you, sweetheart?” he whispered. I moaned and nodded as he thrust his hips forward, once, twice, three mind-blowingly deep times.
“Yes,” I panted, feeling like the nod and moan needed—no, deserved—the verbal confirmation. He smirked at my enthusiasm just before taking my mouth in another hot and heady kiss, our tongues entwined in an erotic dance.
“Fuck,” he muttered and picked up the pace. Each drive forward of his cock timed with that of his tongue inside my mouth. His hands were in constant motion—touching me, feeling me, caressing me.
My breathing turned erratic and my head swirled deliriously, and it didn’t take long before I felt my climax build and build and build.
But Leo knew what the fuck he was doing because he didn’t let me orgasm right away. No. He prolonged it. Slowed it the fuck down and held me right at the glorious edge until I was damn near begging him for release.
I had no idea how much time had passed. It could have been five minutes, or it could have been five hours for all I knew.
But time didn’t matter when Leo Landry was fucking your brains out.
When I finally jumped off the proverbial cliff and my orgasm took hold, all rational thought went out the window, and all sorts of incomprehensible moans and words and just fucking sounds left my lips as I felt that orgasm inside every cell of my body.
Leo wasn’t far behind me, and when he drove himself in as deep as he could go, a deep, raw, guttural groan escaped his lungs as he emptied himself inside of me.
The world turned fuzzy as my mind reeled over what had just happened, and all I could do was lie in my bed, sex-drunk and still panting to catching my breath.
Fuck, that was the best sex I’d had in God knows how long.
Forever, my mind whispered. Forever is the word you’re looking for.
A few quiet moments later, I giggled when he rubbed his nose against mine. “Best fucking midnight cup of coffee I’ve ever had,” he teased, and I couldn’t not grin. I wasn’t a Colombian roast, but apparently I’d hit the spot all the same.
We were mushy and glowing and bound by each other in the connection we still held bodily.
But the rubber band of intimacy snapped with a pop.
Several pops in succession, in fact.
Fucking clapping, for fuck’s sake. Raucous and unchecked, it filled my ears from the other side of my door and totally robbed me of my opportunity for an orgasm-fogged witty retort.
“Bravo!” the voice yelled from the hallway. “Brav-fucking-o, you guys!”
It only took two words for me to realize it was Abby.
My not-my-roommate-roommate.
“Seriously!” Abby shouted from what I assumed was the living room. “Great job! I give that sex a ten!”
Leo looked at me with a quirked brow, and I lived in the bloom of the fire-like blush spreading across my skin. After all, with Leo on top of me—with Leo inside me—there wasn’t exactly a place to hide my head. “I thought you said you didn’t have any roommates?”
“I don’t.” God, Abby. My voice was shaky, from both the embarrassment and the orgasm as I tried to explain. “But I do have a best friend who seems to keep forgetting this isn’t her apartment.”
Leo took it in stride—really, the way he seemed to take everything—a small smile playing at the corner of his lips as he pulled some loose hair out of my face and ran a soft thumb over the flush on my cheek.
I leaned into his touch like a cat preening for pets, and he indulged me.
“Is this the same friend who sent us to Drag on our first date?”
I nodded. “One and the same.”
Leo chuckled and rubbed the tip of his nose against mine before speaking a literal breath away from my lips. “Makes sense.” I smiled at his easygoing acceptance and melted a little farther into his arms. With a wink and kiss, he spoke against
my lips one last time. “I’m just glad she wasn’t in your bedroom.”
And then he took my mouth in the kind of distraction that would last for a lifetime.
Glad she wasn’t in my bedroom? Me fucking too.
Maybe, if I was really lucky, she’d rate us even higher for round two.
The cursor blinked on the screen in the answer box for the fourth time in a half an hour, and I sighed heavily.
I’d been working on this practice quiz for longer than I cared to admit, and the more time that passed, the less I seemed to know.
Graduate-level classes at Rochester Institute of Technology had been more than a whim. In fact, they’d been a careful part of the discussion my parents and I’d had about taking on a career in football.
My success and longevity weren’t guaranteed, and as much as they believed in me, they believed even more in the power of a backup plan. Of course, I hadn’t really thought it’d be this hard at the time.
Once I’d been accepted into RIT’s Architecture Graduate Program, and had been given a little bit of special treatment through the availability of online courses because of my spot on the Mavericks’ roster, I’d decided to take it slow while I was in-season.
Taking one online class at a time couldn’t be that hard, I’d thought.
Hah!
What a fucking joke. Online classes were meant to fit into a schedule more flexibly—though, I wasn’t sure they were intended for a schedule as packed as mine—but that didn’t mean the material was any easier. If anything, it meant I spent ninety percent more time teaching myself the things an in-person professor would have.
And despite my love for architecture, my one and only course—Architectural History—was kicking my ass.
Frustrated, my mind drifted time and time again back to much happier thoughts.
To thoughts of Gemma.
And me.
And a serious lack of clothes.
And how fucking good it’d felt to be inside of her two nights ago.
Consumed by the image of our writhing bodies and sweaty skin, I could picture the two of us together as if it were happening right then. Me over her, her eyes wide at first, and then slowly closing as the power of her orgasm overwhelmed her.
Honestly, it was too goddamn bad my quiz wasn’t based on this material.
I’d have been sure to get a fucking A.
One minute drifted into two as I pictured my hands on Gemma’s breasts and my mouth following their path.
Soft, pink, perfect nipples and the best-tasting skin I’d ever had the pleasure of sucking on.
God, I’d give anything to have those tits in my mouth now.
Loud and obnoxious, the buzz of my phone against my desk startled me rudely out of my daydream.
My cock was half hard and loaded, ready to go, and when it saw the name Gemma on the screen, it went ahead and jumped to full mast.
“Well, hello,” I answered, the gravel in my voice a little too apparent. “I was just thinking about you.”
“Dirty things, I presume,” she said sweetly, and my dick jerked in my pants.
I bit my lip and gripped my cock with a stern fist to get it under control.
“Maybe,” I said innocently. Hoping desperately to come up with something to make myself sound less like a pervert, I glanced to the screen and got an idea. “Really, I was thinking about how smart you are.”
“How smart I am?” she asked cautiously, and I laughed a little at her trepidation.
“Yes. The smartest.”
“This sounds really suspicious and has taken a turn I didn’t expect.”
I chuckled. “I’m working on homework, and it’s stumping me.”
“Homework? You get football homework?”
My laugh was rough and loud as I realized she had no fucking clue about the class at RIT. Football homework. Jesus.
“No, no. I’m taking an online graduate class. I’m doing homework for that.”
Gemma was no less than flabbergasted. “A graduate class? Online? Why the hell are you doing that?”
“Well, we didn’t really get into it the other night, but as much as my family believes in me, they also believe in a backup plan. And so do I.”
“Wow. I’m impressed.”
I laughed. “Well, don’t be. Right now, I’m sucking at it.”
“I’m sure it’s not that bad.”
“I’ve been staring at the same question for half an hour.”
She sighed, big and beleaguered and dramatic. “Wow. That’s pathetic.”
“Thanks,” I retorted through a laugh. “Your support is astounding.”
“Well, I might be willing to help you if you came over here. I mean, I’ll at least consider it under the promise to bring food.”
“Really?”
“The food part is really important.”
I laughed again, jumping up from my spot at my desk and gathering my shit. “I can bring food. Definitely. It’ll probably be about an hour before I get there, though.”
“Okay,” she said easily. “I’ll just make some popcorn to hold me over.”
And that was that. With a smile and a bounce in my step, I grabbed my stuff and headed for Gemma.
I wasn’t sure I’d be able to concentrate on anything but her when I got to her apartment, but I was a good student, after all.
I was certainly willing to give it a try.
“Well, hello,” I greeted Leo at the door. He wore a black hoodie and a pair of sweats and his hair was still a little damp from a shower, but Lord Almighty, he looked damn fine.
And if my smile would’ve gotten any bigger, it would’ve eaten my face.
“Hello, beautiful,” he said before placing a sweet kiss on my cheek and walking past.
I didn’t hesitate to check out his ass as he headed for my kitchen. Firm and toned in all the right places, it was bitable.
In fact, if I had an extra room in my apartment, I’d have been half tempted to create a shrine in its honor. Candles, photos, and just the right amount of creepy lighting to make it believable, it would’ve looked like a set from The Craft.
Which, if you haven’t seen the movie The Craft, you are seriously missing out.
Four girls who happen to be witches casting spells on their fellow asshole classmates?
It is every teenage girl’s revenge fantasy.
Plus, Skeet Ulrich is a total babe in that movie.
And, seriously, who doesn’t love a young Neve Campbell?
Only two official dates and I’d apparently barreled past the point of playing it cool and landed straight in the “I’m crushing on you so bad, and I can’t hide it” stage.
Because I was. I was crushing on Leo Landry hard.
After he set down his messenger bag on the kitchen table, he held up one large brown paper bag and grinned. “Hungry?”
“If you say there are tacos in that bag, I might get down on one knee and propose marriage.”
His responding smile was infectious. “What about the best burgers and fries in Brooklyn? Is the marriage proposal still on the table then?”
Burgers were nice, but I loved tacos.
“Nope.”
“Damn,” he muttered. “Well, feel free to go sit somewhere else while I enjoy these juicy burgers.”
“Whoa. Whoa. Whoa,” I said and put one defiant hand to my hip. “I never said I wouldn’t eat the burgers and fries.”
“But what if I don’t want to share now?” he asked with a mischievous raise of his brow. “I mean, you got me all amped up for a marriage proposal, and now I’m completely let down.”
“Should I remind you that you came over here so that I could help you with grad homework?”
“All right, Gem. I guess you can have a burger.” Leo grinned and held out the bag toward me.
I snatched it from his hands, and he chuckled as I headed toward the cabinets and started dishing out the food onto actual plates. I might’ve been a heathen, but I was the kind of heath
en who used dishes. Classy as fuck.
As part of my right as the food distributor, I popped a fry into my mouth and moaned. “Oh yeah, that’s the good stuff.”
“Yet not good enough, apparently,” he teased, and I flashed him a roll of my eyes over my shoulder.
“Ketchup? Mustard? Mayo?” I asked and started pulling out the condiment bottles from my fridge.
“Mayo?”
“You’ve never dipped your fries in mayonnaise before?”
He shook his head. “Um, no.”
“Oh my God, you are seriously missing out.”
“On a heart attack, maybe. It doesn’t matter anyway. By the time you bring the food over here, I’m pretty sure you’ll have eaten all of my fries.”
“It was just one!” I shouted with an outraged laugh, turning to look at him. “And we’re not all health-conscious football stars, Leonard,” I snorted. “Some of us enjoy the greasier, junk food things in life from time to time.”
“I’m not health-conscious.”
I quirked a brow. “You have six-pack abs and the freaking V muscle. Only a squeaky-clean diet and insane workouts can get you those glorious things.”
“Glorious things?” he questioned with a devilish grin. “Sounds like you’re a fan.”
“Shut up and grab the condiment bottles and your homework. We’re going to binge in my bed.”
“Sounds kinky,” he teased, and I sashayed my hips a little as I walked.
“Burgers, fries, mayonnaise,” I purred. “Things are about to get all kinds of dirty up in this place.”
We settled into my bed, our plates of junk food displayed like a mouthwatering buffet on top of my comforter, and I switched on the television to a rerun of Live PD.
“It’s crazy the number of people who are never driving their own cars,” Leo commented.
“Or wearing their own pants,” I added, and he laughed.
“It’s always someone else’s drugs.”
“Always,” I agreed, and my eyes went wide with delight when the officers called in the K-9 unit to sniff a guy’s car for drugs. “Yesssss!” I exclaimed. “This is my favorite part!”