Intimacy

by Mattie Bowman

  “Smells delicious,” I said, sneaking up behind her to plant a kiss on her neck. “And you could never be awful.”

  She spun around, wrapping her arms around my neck. “I should’ve cooked you something for your last big day.”

  I shook my head, sliding my hands down her sides, cupping her ass as I held her against me. “This is perfect,” I said, sighing as I pressed my lips against hers.

  It had been three months since she’d said yes to my second proposal. Three months since our rocky stay at Inhibitions. Three months since Grant had shaken our hands and sent us home with a more than confident faith in our lasting relationship. Three months of pure perfection, where Tara let me in whenever she had the urge to withdraw into herself—which had been less and less lately—and each day I couldn’t believe how lucky we were.

  Blaire was doing wonderfully in college, and we would see her for the holidays soon. But I would be lying if I said it wasn’t fun to have the house to ourselves again. The freedom in it. The way I could be with Tara and not have to worry about Blaire walking in on us.

  Tara moaned against my lips, and it sent heat straight to my dick. “I missed you,” she said.

  “Couldn’t stop thinking about you all day.” I gripped her ass and hauled her upward. She instantly locked her ankles around me, not missing a beat.

  I turned us away from the counter, walking us toward the massive oak dining room table that sat just off the kitchen. I gently set her on the edge of it, sliding my tongue between her lips.

  “Wait,” she said, slightly breathless as she pulled back a fraction. “What about dinner?”

  I grazed my nose against hers. “I’m hungry for something different.”

  Heat flashed behind her eyes and her cheeks flushed.

  “Here? Now?” She chuckled.

  “Why not?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow at her.

  She licked her lips, and I could tell the moment she realized there wasn’t a reason in the world not to indulge. In one fast motion, my shirt was over my head, her fingers frantic at the hem. Hers came off a second later, and I laid a trail of hot kisses down her smooth skin until I reached the loose silk shorts she’d been wearing. Sliding them and her panties down, I made sure to flick my tongue over her hot center before tossing the clothes on the floor.

  Another moan and she scooted herself backward until her back was against the table.

  I rubbed my palm against her stomach, then down her thighs, stroking her up and down until she writhed beneath me.

  “Quinn,” she breathed my name as if it hurt to do so.

  “Tara,” I copied her before setting my mouth on her wet center. She arched upward, inviting me in, begging me to devour her.

  And I fucking did. I could never get enough of her taste, her scent, or the beautiful way she fell apart under my touch. I alternated between soft sucks and hard licks, teasing her until she bucked against my face.

  Quickly popping the button on my jeans, I shimmied out of everything until I was bare to her. Gripping her hips, I tugged her downward until her perfect ass hung slightly off the edge of the table. I held her up, sliding into her agonizingly slow, torturing us both.

  She sighed when I sank inside her, my full, hard length squeezing between her tight walls.

  “Yes.” She moaned as I picked up my pace, sliding in and out at the angle I knew would set her body on fire. “More.”

  I smirked. “I’ll give you all I have, honey.”

  “Yes.” She bucked against me, meeting my thrusts with her rolls of her hips and it made all my nerve endings spark with electricity.

  “Fucking perfect,” I said, clutching her harder, pumping inside her faster. She clenched around my dick, and it nearly buckled my knees it felt so damn good.

  She shook her head; her eyes shut tight.

  “Look at me,” I said, and her eyes popped open. “Don’t hold it back.”

  She bit down on her lower lip, her brow furrowed. “I want us to go together.”

  The ache in her voice only made me harder, and from the gasp she made, she could feel it.

  “Please, Quinn.” She moaned, and I threw my head back, growling. I had planned to worship her for hours, but she was making it fucking impossible to hold on much longer.

  Her walls squeezed me even tighter, and I hissed, looking back down at her. “I’ll let go if you do.”

  Her eyes widened, and she gave me the smallest nod. I slipped my hand underneath the small of her back, arching her upward until I hit the exact spot she needed the pressure. Over and over again, I thrusted until she dug her nails into my back and screamed my name.

  The pulsing of her hot, wet pussy around my dick was too much to handle, as was the incredibly beautiful face she made as she flew apart beneath me. I followed her, just as I promised I would.

  Lifting her up, I held her to me and fell back into a chair until she straddled me. We caught our breath, and I smoothed back her hair, studying the flush of her cheeks and the curve of her lips.

  “You’re beautiful,” I said, leaning my forehead against hers.

  She smirked, slowly rocking her hips back and forth. I was still inside her, slick and hot and with each light move she made, I grew harder and harder. “Did I tell you I missed you?” She asked, clutching the back of my neck.

  “You might have mentioned it,” I said, my teeth clenched as she leaned backward enough to put her gorgeous bare breasts on display. I swiped my tongue over one of her nipples, and she gasped, a grin on her lips.

  Popping back up straight, she lifted herself as if to stand, but I sank her back on top of me by holding her hips. The motion let her feel exactly how hard she’d made me in record time.

  “Again?” She asked, her eyes widening.

  “Can you handle it?” I challenged, rolling her breasts between my fingers.

  “I can if you can.” She arched a brow at me, and I claimed her mouth before grinning.

  “Is this what retirement will be like?” She teased, running her hands down my abs.

  “It can be anything you want it to be,” I said, knowing I would do anything to make her happy for the rest of our lives.

  “Good.” She gently bucked against me until I growled again. “Because you’re everything I want and all of what I need.”

  I cupped her cheek, kissing her softly. “Forever?”

  She nodded, wrapping her arms around my neck to move as close to me as humanly possible. “Forever.”

  Slanting my mouth over hers, I stroked the edges of her teeth with my tongue and ran my hands down the smooth skin of her back. She rode me in the chair until I couldn’t see straight until all I could do was feel.

  We made love like we were teenagers—stopping only to breathe before diving right back in again. And though it may have taken us eighteen years to earn back the wild abandon we’d traded for the perfect baby girl, there was nothing I would change. Because it didn’t matter how or when or how we came to be—it only mattered that we were still here, together, with as much and even more love than when we’d started.

  Best friend. Girlfriend. Mother of my child. Wife.

  No amount of time with this woman would ever be enough.

  The End

  Turn the page to see what Grant has in store for you!

  INDUGLENCE

  An Inhibitions Novel

  By Mattie Bowman

  Prologue

  Six Years Ago

  Grant

  A pounding on my hotel room door jerked me out of the deep sleep I’d succumbed to after singing my heart out on a giant ass stage in…Atlanta? Dallas? Where the fuck are we?

  I stumbled out of the king-sized bed, my bare feet scraping against the lush carpet as I zigzagged my way to the door.

  “Bently you better have a fucking good excuse!” I shouted before I’d grabbed the knob. Bently was the drummer in our band—Wolfsbane—and the only one insane enough to wake me up after a show like we just played.

  Yanking open
the door, the air rushed from my lungs.

  “Riley?” I whispered like she was an illusion, some beautiful nightmare manifested to taunt me. Maybe I hadn’t woken up. Maybe I was still dreaming.

  The thick black eyeliner that she wore during shows to make her green eyes pop was smudged down her cheeks, her eyes reddened from recent tears. I immediately reached for her, wrapping my fingers around her small wrist to pull her inside. The touch of her skin sent the same charge of electricity it always had, and I no longer thought I was dreaming.

  “What happened?” I asked as I navigated her to the small couch that hugged the wall across from my bed.

  She plopped down, raking her fingers through her long black hair. “Bently.” She choked out his name, sniffling as her head fell in her hands.

  I glanced at the clock on the nightstand next to my bed. It was after three a.m., but we’d had a show earlier—a sold-out show that we slayed. The couple had been fine then. My stomach twisted with jealousy I knew I shouldn’t have. “I thought you two were going to the after party?” I’d seen them walking arm and arm toward the penthouse upstairs that our manager had secured for the after-gig-shenanigans.

  Normally I’d take part in them, but lately—for the last year—the hotel suites filled with liquor, smoke, and people using the night to forget themselves had lost its appeal.

  When our band first found success, the endless supply of women falling topless in my lap was a more-than-anticipated perk of fame because it distracted me from the fact that I was in love with my best friend.

  The guitarist for our band, Riley.

  Aka Bently’s girl. Off limits in more ways than one.

  But, even a different girl every night couldn’t numb the love I had for her, so I excluded myself from all activities that didn’t include work. That was, of course, except when Riley wanted to lose herself in whichever city we happened to be playing. I never had the ability to say no to her when she wanted to check out the thrift markets or old bookstores. Bently somehow always managed to swindle his way out of the explorations she enjoyed, though I never understood why. If she were mine, I’d find joy in doing any damn thing the woman wanted.

  “We did,” she finally answered, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. Even as she was—disheveled, distraught, and one hell of a hot mess—she was beautiful. Her smooth skin, the perfect body with legs that went on for miles, and the greenest, sharpest eyes I’d ever seen. Riley was more than her looks, or her ability to play one hell of a guitar, she was funny, smart, and had a take no prisoners attitude that had her starring in every fantasy I’d had since the band started years ago. And no matter how hard I tried, I could never erase the thought that she should be with me and not Bently.

  No one but me.

  It made me feel like an asshole, but he didn’t deserve her. Hell, I didn’t either, but at least if she was with me, I’d treat her like the fucking queen she was. Not like a trophy to be preserved like Bently did.

  She trembled so hard the couch shook, and I wrapped an arm around her, drawing her against my chest. The motion was natural between us. We’d been friends since she only knew three chords, but it meant more to me than she knew. Little stolen moments in time, like this, when we weren’t part of the band, or out with the guys, we were just us. Grant and Riley.

  “You have to tell me what happened,” I urged her. Adrenaline gathered slowly in my blood, something I couldn’t control when she had fresh tears dimming the sparkling green in her eyes. I wanted to seek out whoever had put the pain in her heart, and obliterate him—regardless if he was my friend or not.

  She took a long, steadying breath, but didn’t look up at me as she spoke. “You know how he won’t ever…” she shifted slightly against my chest, and though I couldn’t see her face, I knew she was blushing. We’d had the conversation more than once, and every time it damn near killed me.

  Bently and Riley had started dating almost immediately upon the band forming, and she’d been a virgin then. Now, two years later, she still was. But she didn’t want to be. She loved Bently and had wanted to take that next step for longer than I cared to know. Though, I was her best friend, her only confident among the sea of fame we’d achieved, and so I was always there to listen when she’d needed to vent.

  “He always told me it was because he wanted to wait for the perfect moment, or for us to get married. And like an idiot I believed him…believed he wasn’t—” A sob tore through her chest, cutting off whatever she’d been about to say.

  She didn’t have to finish.

  I already knew.

  Each one of my muscles tensed as I held her, allowed her to spill buckets of tears onto my chest as I kept my hands to myself.

  Of course, I knew he was cheating on her. He had been for years. Of course, I’d threatened to beat his ass more than once over it, but he’d never stopped, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it except pray he wised up or that she never found out. I didn’t want her to get hurt. Some fucking good praying had done.

  “I caught him screwing some groupie bitch in the penthouse bathroom!” She shouted, jerking upright and launching off the couch like she was going to make a physical attack on the room. She paced the area in front of me, shaking her head. “I’m such an asshole!”

  “He’s the asshole,” I said, standing before her to stop her frantic pacing. “Not you.”

  Her shoulders dropped, the fire going out of her eyes. “No. I am. I believed him for so long. He’d thought I left. I told him I was going to bed, but I couldn’t sleep. Went back.” She clenched her eyes shut.

  I wiped the last squeeze of tears that rolled down her cheeks with the pads of my thumbs, cupping her face in my hands. “You deserve so much better,” I said, my voice almost a whisper.

  “I know,” she said, sighing. “You’ve always told me. I wish I would’ve listened.” She shifted her weight, finally drawing those damn green eyes to lock with mine as she forced a smile. “You really suck for always being right.”

  “I wish I wasn’t.”

  “Really?” she tilted her head in my grasp, taking a step closer to me.

  I swallowed hard, dropping my hands to my sides. “I never want to see you in this much pain.”

  A long sigh left her as if my words had ushered out all the tension in her body. She wrapped her arms around my waist, resting her head against my chest once again. “I love you,” she said.

  “Love you, too,” I answered. The words weren’t new. We’d loved each other since I taught her how to play from the heart, not just her head. She’d let me guide her fingers over my guitar, show her how to pluck it to make it sing. Show her how to use it to siphon the energy of the crowd and blow it right back in their face, getting them off with the beauty in her strumming.

  My love was different than hers, ran deeper than the friendly version she had for me, but she didn’t ever need to know that.

  My back went rod stiff when she slowly tucked her hands underneath the hem of my shirt, smoothing her fingers up the skin of my back. “Riley.”

  She continued to stroke my back, setting my flesh on fire with each graze of her fingers. “Grant,” she challenged my warning tone.

  “Were you drinking before you saw Bently?” I asked, needing to know if her actions were brought on by the combination of betrayal and a good amount of alcohol.

  “No,” she said, pulling back enough to look up at me. “But a drink sounds fucking perfect right about now.”

  I nodded, understanding the need to put a night like she’d had to bed with a few fingers of rum. I moved to fix her something from the mini-bar, but she stopped me, gripping my arm to keep me there.

  “Don’t,” she said, shifting so her body was flush with mine. “Please, Grant. I need you.”

  Her words sent shocks of electricity crackling inside every inch of me, but I remained a statue. “You’ve had one hell of a night. You need sleep.”

  “Sleep is the last thing I need.” She rolle
d her eyes and brushed her chest against mine.

  I hissed, a low growl rumbling from my chest. “Riley,” I warned again.

  “Please.” The look in her eyes matched her verbal plea. “Show me.”

  “Show you what?” I asked, swallowing hard. Her soft body felt so damn good against the hard planes of mine, and all I wanted to do was run my hands over those perfect hips and heft her against me. Instead, I stayed as still as if she were holding a loaded gun to my head.

  She traced her finger over the side of my jaw before wrapping her hand behind my neck. “I want to know what it feels like. To be passionate, to be loved. Really loved. Even for just the night.”

  I scrunched my eyebrows at her. “And you think I’m the one who can give that to you?”

  She fingered the strands of my hair, twirling and twisting them until she was tangled. “I know you could have any girl you want. I know that you don’t need this like I do. But, you’re my best friend. You’re sexier than any man I’ve ever seen, especially when you’re serenading thousands of screaming fans. And there is no one I’ve ever trusted as much as I have you.”

  “Bently,” I said his name like it would remind my heart all the reasons why I should back the fuck up.

  Walk away, and no one gets hurt.

  She flinched, closing her eyes once again. “He’s never known me like you. You know that. I thought we were meant to be together. Thought he was going to propose, and we’d get married and work and play together…but all he wanted was a steady woman to take care of him in ways a groupie couldn’t. A wife without the benefits. Pristine. Perfect. Bullshit.”

  The anger in her tone amped up how much she turned me on. She was so fierce when someone wasn’t standing on her shoulders, telling her how she should or shouldn’t act. I took a small step backward, not wanting her to feel just how much I wanted her in that instant.

  “Grant,” she said my name again, and everything inside me unraveled. Those green eyes were pleading, on fire but pleading. “I want you to touch me.” She closed the distance between us, and her eyes popped when she felt my hard cock against her. A smirk played over her perfect pink lips. “And you want to, too.”