by Anna Bloom
Evan grinned wide. “That’s all you turned up with.”
I rolled my eyes and flipped him the bird. “Doesn’t work like that. Lyra can’t just disappear. What about her family? When they find out she’s gone, missing, what then?” I turned to face her. “She’d never do that to them, would you, Lyra?” I flexed my fists, straining to keep my expression smooth.
“I would, Jack, if it meant I was with you.”
I shook my head. “You’d let them think you were dead, or didn’t love them? I can assure you, Lyra, there is no feeling quite as hellish as that.”
Lyra threw herself to her knees in front of me. “Jack, please, you’ve just got to tell me why you can’t go home. Then I’ll know. At the moment I’m fighting against secrets.”
This was so true, but I shook my head, pulling her closer and resting my forehead against hers. “If I told you, one way or the other I’d lose you forever.”
“I can’t believe that.” Her warm breath fanned across my face.
“Trust me.”
“I always have.”
We sat for a long while, our foreheads pressed together, just breathing and being, until eventually Evan cleared his throat. “Guest room is yours, Jack. I’ll leave a spare set of keys next to the front door.” He got up from his seat. “Oh, and, Lyra?”
She tore her gaze from mine to look over at him.
“Yes?”
“I’ll expect you at work later.”
“Hey!” I started, but he held up his hand.
“Everything should remain as is until you guys decide what you are doing. That means at college and at the bar.”
“Although no singing apparently?” she added.
Evan winked at Lyra. “Don’t you worry. Eddie will be very thorough with who he lets in.”
“Thanks.” I lifted my chin.
“That’s what friends are for.”
He whistled as he grabbed his keys and phone off of a small table. Then it was just Lyra and me.
No halls full of students. No bar full of people. No student parties.
Just us.
“I’m sorry, Lyra. This is such a mess.”
“Because of the Collins thing?”
“Yes, and other stuff.”
“Secrets.” She gave me a sad smile.
“Things would have been so different if I…” I ran a hand down my face. “If I hadn’t felt the way I did about you all those years ago.”
“Blue, I’m not that kid anymore. I can make my own choices now, and yeah, maybe they are hard, and kind of suck, but where I am now, the fact I am even here, it’s all because of you anyway. You must see that.”
I sat back a little bit and her hands landed on my knees, warm palms through cotton. “What if the Collins Foundation hadn’t offered you the scholarship? What would you have done?”
She scrunched her face, wrinkling her cute little nose. “I was relieved, you know, initially. Thanked God I never had to play that instrument again. It was like heaven. I can’t even tell you how freeing that felt. Grams was so hurt though; she’d been convinced that the scholarship was mine.”
“And?”
“And then after a couple of weeks.” She paused, rubbing at the end of her nose.
“After a couple of weeks?” I prompted.
“I thought about you. What you would have thought if I didn’t try harder like I promised I would.” She laughed wryly and shook her head. “Little did I know you weren’t thinking of me at all.”
Reaching forward, I tilted her chin with my fingers so she’d look at me. “I think we both know now that’s not true.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know.”
I wanted to kiss her so much it scorched my skin, made my bones vibrate with an endless need. But I’d made a mess of everything. “This morning when I thought Greene was going to fire me because of that goddamn photo of us singing and playing together, all I thought was that not seeing you every day would be torture. I don’t know how I left all those years ago.”
“Why did you?”
My hand slipped around her cheek, my thumb brushing her skin. “Because I had to.”
“Jack, let’s leave. We can just go, right now. I don’t care. I’m pretty sure Grams knows I’m here with you. She made it sound like that on the phone anyway…”
I stiffened.
“What do you mean?”
“This morning. She said something strange—”
“And Luca?”
She narrowed her gaze. “Please tell me the only reason you don’t want to go home is not because you’re worried your old friend will be fucked off you’ve touched his kid sister?”
I laughed. It echoed empty from my chest. “No.”
“Okay.” She reached up, grabbing my shirt and pulling me closer. “Because firstly, I’m not a kid. And secondly, you haven’t even touched me yet, but I wish to hell you would.”
She eased me closer, her hold determined, her lips brushing mine. “Please.”
“Lyra.” I caught her hand, loosening her grip on my shirt. “Not like this.”
“No, Jack.” I reeled back as she pushed away, stretching to her full height in one fluid movement. “I’ve been thinking about what you said on the roof the other night. About your dad, and what he did.” Her voice caught a little, making my own throat tighten. “You are nothing like your dad, and I’m no longer a little child you shouldn’t want to touch.”
Her fingers fumbled as she pushed the buttons through the holes of her shirt. With a deep sigh, I got up from the sofa, reaching for her hand and pulling her in.
“Lyra,” I whispered against her skin, into her hair, into the curls that drove me crazy with need. “I don’t see you as a child. Don’t you understand? That was always my problem.”
My lips slanted over hers, hunger gnawing my bones, searching for a resolution to this almost lifelong crisis I’d found myself in.
She sighed, almost automatically, and relaxed into me, mellowing against me, the smell of her skin filling my head. My fingers wound into her curls, threading themselves in tight and her tongue flicked out to reach mine, seeking me out.
And I was done denying myself. Dropping her hair, I ran my hands down her back, pushing her in tighter to my torso, to my hips, so she could feel the aching desire I had. So she knew this was real.
She rubbed against me, murmuring little sighs and moans as my hands skimmed across her skin, pushing off the shirt, running along the hem of the strappy tank she wore underneath.
Every skimming touch of her skin was heavenly, and I knew that to be inside her, under her skin, it would be like nothing else in existence.
Slowly, I pulled the strap of her tank down, kissing along her throat and the curve of her shoulder. She rolled her neck, arching and giving me more space. From there, I kissed along her collarbone and back up the other side, nibbling occasionally with my teeth and then soothing with the tip of my tongue. When I got back to her lips, I peeked a glance at her face, only to find her with her eyes closed, an expression of almost oblivion painted across her features. And that was just kissing her neck. I smiled and then went back in, teasing her lips open, my tongue slipping inside, claiming all the things I deserved.
Her hand ran along my chest, smoothing across my pecs, down my waist. My dick strained against the fly of my pants. I either needed to take the fuckers off or stop this now.
“Lyra?” I called her focus back but then when it came to it, I didn’t have the words to form the choice.
She smiled and grabbed my hand. “Where’s this guest room?”
This was actually it. She was going to be mine.
“Down there.” I pointed behind her shoulder and she turned, towing me for the hall that led to three closed doors. Once there she waited for me to point to the guest room and then silently pushed the door open and walked in, stopping briefly to take in Evan’s manly interior of gray and white.
I couldn’t stop myself, and I knew there was no st
opping now, even if I wanted to. I pushed her back against the door, pinning her with her hands above her head. Her eyes sparked with fire, her plump and perfect lips parted so the tip of her tongue teased me further.
I crushed her, claiming her mouth, ruthlessly stealing everything she had to give. And she gave it all, taking everything I had in the same moment.
My fingers pulled at her clothes, yanking the tank up and over her head, snatching my mouth from hers at the last moment before crashing back down.
Her chest heaved; a plain black bra was now the sexiest damn thing I’d ever seen. The swell of her golden tits, the rise and fall of her ragged breath. They could bring a grown man to his knees, and they had.
Falling down, anchoring my hands on her hips, I trailed kisses across her belly. Her divine smell of strawberry and a faint floral perfume made my head swirl in the best way.
“Lyra.” I sucked on the firm skin of her tummy, pulling it into my mouth and brushing it gently with pressure before releasing it and marking her again. “Lyra?”
I pulled back when she didn’t answer. The door bore all her weight, her hands were still above her head exactly where I’d left them. The fucking sexiest sight I’d ever seen.
Until I undid her shorts, levering them down her hips leaving her just in black underwear I swear I’d dreamed about thousands of times.
The Lyra in front of me… I finally saw it, a moment of utterly clear awakening… she was a new woman. I pressed my forehead into her stomach, the faintest hint of her musky scent working into my senses as finally, with one shuddering breath, I let go of the guilt I’d been hauling around. The shame, the dirtiness that I could want something so very wrong.
Lyra wasn’t wrong now.
She was perfect and made just for me.
My throat thickened. “Lyra, look at me.”
She glanced down and I hoped she could see the reverence I held for her as I knelt at her feet, worshipping everything she was.
“Have you been with anyone else?”
This wasn’t the best time to ask, but funnily enough it hadn’t come up in conversation.
“Why?” She stiffened. Her hand lowering and reaching for my hair. “Is that an issue?”
I sagged at her answer, a smile growing on my lips.
“No.” I pecked a kiss at the top of her panties, and she gave a small shiver. “I just don’t want to hurt you.”
She looked down at me, fiercely holding my gaze. “And I’ve told you before. I want your type of hurt.”
Closing my eyes, I let it all flow over me, then reaching forward, I kissed across the surface of her panties. Her legs trembled. This truly was no man’s land. I was the first in, and fuck, if I didn’t swear on my life right now, I’d be the last.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Lyra Bird,” I whispered into her skin. “I’m going to help you fly.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Lyra
My legs trembled, from nerves or anticipation I didn’t know.
He palmed his hand against my belly. “Relax.”
“I’m trying,” I said, almost gasping as he swept his nose and mouth gently over my panties in repeated patterns, drawing invisible traces.
His hand ran up my legs, smoothing over the skin of my thighs, his thumb brushing across my clit with the lightest touch. I whimpered and shivered again.
I groaned as he pulled away. I rose up. No don’t move, stay there and do more of that. Leaning in, he kissed me gently on the mouth, his fingers trailing along the edge of my face. “I want you to relax.”
I cracked him a lopsided grin. “Kinda hard when I’m here all naked and you’re still dressed.”
His answering smile blinded me. “Too true.”
I screeched as he swept me up in his arms, pressing me tight into his chest, his lips landing on mine in an unbreakable kiss as he walked us across the room.
I broke the kiss though when he walked right past where I figured the bed should be. “Where are you going?”
My question got answered soon enough as he kicked open a door to a small en suite bathroom. Still holding me, he leaned into the shower stall and switched it on. Then turning, he placed me on the vanity unit.
“You need to relax.”
“Jack. For God’s sake, this isn’t a science experiment, or a race I need to limber up for.”
Laughing, he clutched my hand and pressed it into his chest. “You’ll be limber all right.”
I caught my hands around his neck, capturing him and pulling him in close, hooking my legs around his waist and crossing them at the ankle so I had his in a vice-like hold.
“I think you’re stalling,” I breathed into his mouth.
“Lyra, I can’t take my clothes off with you hanging around my neck.”
“Oh.”
I released my hold and watched wide eyed as my Blue, the boy who used to live next door, stripped off his clothes under the bright bathroom lights.
“Oh.” I exhaled heavily as his fucking enormous dick hovered in the air between us. Oooh. My knees pressed together in protest.
He caught me staring and smirked. “Now do you see the plan?”
“What plan?” It came out breathless and wanton.
He shifted closer, edging between my knees. “I’m going to get you so damn wet you will only feel the good stuff.”
I nodded, my stomach tightening as I quickly glanced at his dick again—how had I never known it was that big? I mean I know I only felt it over his jeans before but come on! Then swallowing down all my worries, I looked up to meet his gaze. “I trust you.”
“Good.”
He pulled me off the counter, placed me on the floor and then turned me, unhooking my bra and sweeping off my panties.
I knew he turned me around, so I didn’t have to feel shy, but he didn’t get it. This felt so insanely right that shy wasn’t even a factor. I turned, unflinching, and his gaze raked across every inch of my skin, setting me on fire. “Beautiful,” he whispered and caught me up once again into his arms, carrying me into the steam filled stall.
The water steamed scorching hot, but I guessed that was the point.
“Is this utterly necessary?” I held onto him as he placed me down.
“Hmm.” He cocked his head to the side, smirking. “Utterly.” Swiping down, he caught my lips in a searing kiss. “And fun.”
His thick erection pressed into my belly, a stark reminder that every fantasy I’d ever held was about to come true. I waited for the nerves to kick in, but they didn’t come. Instead, a wild fluttering made my stomach tighten, and my tongue tingled, dry in my mouth.
Not nerves. Something else, utterly unknown.
I gasped as he nipped my throat, water cascading down his face as he moved in front of the jets. My nipples stood to attention; dark, rosy skin in the brilliant-white bathroom. I watched them with fascination as he brushed his fingertips over them, his movements confident and sure.
“I have to say,” I gasped a little as he sucked a nipple into his mouth—Oh God, the heat in my core made me wince—“I thought it would be messier than this. More, uh…” I ran out of words as his fingers dipped into the wet skin between my legs and I let out a low moan.
Fuck. The hot water, his touch. I closed my eyes, throwing my head back, letting the water stream over my face as I waited for his next caress.
It came as a firm sweep over my clit, his fingertip running back and forth. His lips stayed focused on my nipples, pulling and sucking, gently tugging with his teeth.
I needed more. It built inside me and impulsively, I pushed my hips toward his fingers. Green eyes flashed up at me, and a corner of his top lip hitched into a small smile. This time the push was harder, two fingers circling pressure on my clit, making my knees weaken. I reached back against the tiles for support. Jack moved with me, lowering to his knees, using his free hand to tip my hips forward. I whimpered without shame. I needed more.
Just more.
More everyt
hing.
More Jack.
More Blue.
A soft lick replaced his fingers and I glanced down to see his head buried between my legs, his dark hair flattened by the water, droplets running down his muscled back. His tongue flicked back and forth and just as I thought I might explode, that the building and the burning and the excessive need to just fucking crash would consume me, he slipped a finger deep inside me.
I splintered, shuddering, my legs barely holding me up. He had me though, his tongue easing my orgasm, his fingers still slipping in and out. One finger. Two fingers. Oh God.
Still stroking and pushing, he leaned back, smiling up at me. “Better?”
“Uh. Fuck. Uh.”
He chuckled, still moving his fingers deep within me, another tingle flickered to life lower in my belly and my eyes widened in shock.
Again? Was that even possible?
“You’re so fucking tight, Lyra. Jesus.” He curled his finger around, pushing it deep inside me in a different direction and I collapsed through another release.
My eyes stung and saltwater mixed with the steam of the shower.
“Why are you crying?” He straightened up, slipping his hand from the hypersensitive spot between my legs. A strange emptiness hollowed me out with his missing touch. “Lyra?” He palmed my hair. “Why are you crying?”
“I always dreamed it could feel like that, now I know it can.”
Blue pressed a kiss to one corner of my mouth, then the other. “Anything less than that and it’s not worth doing.”
I nodded, thinking I understood what he was saying. Jack Cross had never been a saint; a fact that had tortured me relentlessly in my youth. But right then, with that look in his eyes, his hand gently cupping my face, I understood what he told me.
That he felt it too. It was as special to him as it was to me.
“Take me to bed.”
“I am, with no hesitation.”
I chuckled, clutching my arms around his neck as he lifted me up and I clamped our wet bodies together with my legs wrapped round his waist.
Back out in the bedroom, he lowered me with such delicate care onto the bed he looked almost shy with adoration. “This is happening, isn’t it?”