by Cynthia Dane
Our… wedding.
That was classic Zack at work again. Making jokes, never being serious… Rachel needed to loosen up and throw it right back at him.
“Wait until I tell you that I love you before you start going on about our wedding.”
“Oh, so you do love me?” He offered her a piece of chocolate cake from his little fork. “You should try this. Think you’d like it.”
Rachel turned around. “Could you be serious for a few seconds?”
Zack put the plate down and followed her through the crowded lines. “The hell did I do?”
She came through the other side with a sigh on her lips. Stop playing with me like this. Asking her back to his place. Joking about them getting married. Joking about loving her. It wasn’t fair. She couldn’t keep doing this to herself.
Because the longer she stayed around him, the more she bought into his funny anecdotes and suggestions that they could be more than friends who happened to know what each other’s bodily fluids tasted like.
I hate how I get around him. Rachel hid in the shadows, hoping her bright blue saree wouldn’t be too easy to see. She would have dipped into the women’s restroom, but it was so crowded with crowing aunties that she didn’t dare get mixed up in that. He’s going to destroy me, and he won’t even mean to do it.
“Rachel.”
Damnit. There he was.
“I’m sorry if I offended you.” Damnit, and he was still talking! “I wish you would tell me what I did this time, though.”
“It’s not you.” Rachel couldn’t believe she took this route. “It’s me. I need a little space.”
“Is this because I was joking about us getting married? It was a joke, Rachel.”
“No, I…” She shook her head. “It’s not like that.”
“Do you mean your feelings, or what we’ve got going on here?”
“What do we have?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to get you to tell me.” Zack slammed his hand against the wall. “You confuse me more than all the languages I hear spoken here. At least they’re being direct with each other.”
Rachel couldn’t respond. Her heart was racing, torn between forcing her to flee and begging her to dive into his arms again.
“You kinda drive me crazy.”
“I could say the same thing about you.”
“Why do you like me so much? Why?”
He shrugged. “Why not? Is there a good reason not to like you?”
“I’m a mess. I string you along, making half-promises that I never intend to fulfill.”
“What makes you say that? I can’t think of any promises you haven’t fulfilled to me.”
Rachel didn’t say anything.
“Does this have to do with sex?”
She still wouldn’t say anything.
“Rachel Mary-Ann Taylor,” how the hell did he learn her whole name? “You drive me crazy because I think you’re the damn bees-knees. We’re not going to question Cupid and his quiver full of arrows.”
“Why do you make jokes like that?”
“Who says they’re jokes? I’m not ashamed to say that I’m halfway to loving you.”
Rachel’s eyes widened. There was no way that he said… “What’s stopping you from committing to full love?”
“Honestly? Insecurity.”
“Inse… !”
“Insecurity that you don’t feel the same way about me.” Zack took a step back. “We guys get insecure about our feelings too, you know.”
Rachel stared at him, dumbfounded. Was it possible? That he really had feelings like those for her? But was afraid to admit them because of her… her reluctance?
That was crazy!
“You’re nuts.” Rachel couldn’t hold in the laughter. “You’re holding back because of me? That’s fucking crazy! Look at you! You could have any woman you want, and I’m the one making you insecure?”
He wasn’t laughing along with her. “Yes. I can have any woman I want. Except you, apparently.”
“Which makes you want me more. Always after the fish you can’t catch.”
“More like aimlessly hoping that you’ll take things to the next level with me. But that’s okay. I’m a patient man, if I think it’s worth it.”
Rachel still couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This was like some twisted dream come true. Assuming he could be trusted, of course. “You think I’m worth it?”
“Absolutely.”
He tried to suppress an excited smile, but in the end, Zack couldn’t hold back the giddiness overcoming even a man like him. It was the closest he would get to a love confession for now. As for Rachel? She didn’t even try to suppress it. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in the emerald green kurta that already smelled of him.
She broke away from him only to track down Parvati and tell him that they were leaving early. She then hunted down the happy newlyweds and wished them the best on their new path in life. As soon as Sita took her hands in thanks, Rachel dashed off, dodging dancers and forgetting any vows she had made to herself.
It was close enough to the end of August, anyway.
“Your place!” She snatched Zack’s hand on the way by, yanking him along behind her. “Did you bring your car?”
He stammered out an affirmative as they entered the main hall.
“Good! That means it will only take us ten minutes to get back to your apartment!”
The things she was going to do him.
Chapter 27
“This is so Sixteen Candles,” Rachel said, sitting cross-legged on Zack’s bed with a piece of wedding cake between them.
“Did you think I was gonna leave a wedding without a damn slice of cake? I’m surprised you didn’t smack it out of my hand when you came for me.”
They had changed out of their wedding attire. Zack sat in a simple black V-neck and a soft pair of jeans. Rachel had stolen one of his smaller band T-shirts and sat in nothing else but her underwear. Even her bra was left on the floor.
She was rather shocked they hadn’t gone straight to the main event. Zack had been waiting for it as much as she had, right? Or was this a ploy to test how serious she was? To be fair, Rachel had been second-guessing herself ever since Zack insisted on changing clothes and eating the wedding cake before doing anything else. Yes, even something sexual. Showering counted as something sexual.
“I have been to many weddings in my thirty years on Earth,” Zack explained. “If there’s anything I know, bless my mother’s neurotic soul, it’s that you always eat your piece of cake and never, ever let it go to waste.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s bad luck otherwise. If a couple eats a piece of wedding cake together, it solidifies their bond. Or something.”
“Or something.” Rachel giggled. “I think you just want to eat cake.”
“That’s not all I wanna eat.” He waggled his brows at her. That made Rachel laugh more.
“You are pretty good at it, yeah.” Rachel said that as a woman who normally didn’t enjoy it that much. Not that she ever said no to a good, ah, eating.
Zack held up the fork, chocolate cake crumbling between the metallic prongs. “You get the honors of the first bite, lovely lady.”
Rachel closed her eyes and stuck out her tongue. It might have that nasty strawberry stuff on it, but I’m not going to say no to cake from Zack.
The chocolate itself was more than delicious enough to sate Rachel’s taste buds. She ignored the taste of strawberry glaze in favor of chomping down on crumbling chocolate cake and trying not to get it on Zack’s bedspread. She had a feeling he wouldn’t care, though.
“I have never in my life seen a prettier woman eat cake.”
“You’ve gotta stop flattering me like that.” Rachel wiped away crumbs from her mouth. “I’m gonna start thinking you’re not serious.”
“Excuse you. I don’t say that women are pretty when they’re eating cake to anyone. I don’t want you to get t
he wrong idea.”
“What wrong idea is that?”
“That I don’t take what we’re doing seriously.”
Rachel snagged one last bite of cake before it disappeared. “Says the guy who sat down in a café and asked me out on a whim.”
“It wasn’t a whim.”
She pushed aside the plate and fork. My breath smells like chocolate wedding cake now. How was she going to get away with kissing a man with breath like this? Never mind his breath smelled exactly the same…
Zack’s expression had not changed in the past minute. “I’m serious. You’ve gotta stop thinking that I’m not a man who takes these things seriously. If I say I like you, I mean it.”
She shoved her hands into her lap and tried not to giggle. “I’m sorry, it’s just… it’s a lot to take in. We haven’t known each other that long. I decided to approach this relationship from a different perspective than I usually have, and…”
“And?”
She glanced up at him. “I don’t regret it.”
“You’re trying to tell me,” Zack leaned in, that look in his eye screaming that he had only one intent from the moment they sat cross-legged on his bed, “that you don’t regret not going all the way with me for the past two months?”
“I mean… I obviously wanted to.”
“Obviously. I was at that lake house, too.”
Don’t remind me. Rachel swelled with those memories as they flooded into her mind and settled in the pit of her stomach. I should’ve worn pants. Going pantsless made her more vulnerable than she was ready to tackle right now.
“I think about you all the time, Rachel Taylor.”
She didn’t chastise him for continuing to call her that. I kinda like it now. The more he called her by her full name, the more she was convinced he was taking the time to get to know her. Like committing her face, her name, and the words she said to memory.
“You mean that?”
“Yes.”
Rachel leaned forward, a grin the size of her giddiness stretching across her lips. “You think about me when you’re alone at night? In this bed?”
“Yup.”
She had to commend his candor. Unlike her, Zack didn’t seem nervous at all. Why am I even nervous? I’ve fooled around with him plenty now. She knew how he made love. Except for that one thing.
Rachel climbed halfway into his lap, hands braced against his bent knees. He was so sturdy that she was more emboldened to graze her lips against his stubbly chin. “What kind of things do you think about?”
His hands lightly gripped her hips before ascending the sides of her torso. Fingers wrapped beneath her borrowed T-shirt and tickled her skin. Knuckles curled into the curves of her naked breasts. “Making love to you.”
Rachel immediately noticed the tensing of his body beneath her touch. “What do we do when we make love?” she asked in a hush.
“Everything.”
“Everything?”
Zack pulled her shirt up and over her head. It landed somewhere behind her, probably on the floor, but definitely nowhere nearby. “Whatever we want.”
Rachel dove forward and grabbed his shirt. It was faster for Zack to take off his own damned clothes, but that required Rachel letting go.
He is so fucking hot. Damnit. Every time Zack got undressed, Rachel wondered how she could stand to gaze upon his otherworldly figure.
“What do you want, Zack?”
He cupped his hand around her cheek and gently kissed her lips. “You.”
“Me?” She kissed him next, letting her lips linger on his.
“Under me. On top of me. In front of me. Hell, I’ll take you behind me if we’re kinky.”
Rachel laughed. “That’s more like it. I’m here for dirty talk. Not romance.”
“Half the fun is trying to combine the two.”
“Where the hell is my dirty talk?”
“Ooh, baby, ooh, ooh, ooh.”
“That was actually kinda sexy.”
“Stick with me, Rachel Taylor, and I’ll give you full-blown sexy.”
***
Rachel had worried that she wasn’t being forward enough. It didn’t help that he had pulled away and became a man with coded words and a knowing look in his eye. Two things Rachel wanted to ignore in favor of having fun.
Her worries were for naught. All it took was some heavy kisses and light caresses to his bare skin, and soon she was face first in his lap, waking him up – and herself, as well.
She didn’t torment him like she often did, although it was good fun to get her mouth on his sensitive nerve endings and feel him go crazy. Bonus points if he begged for release.
She wasn’t interested in that tonight. This wasn’t about pure, raw, sexual energy manifesting between them. This was about finally facing those underlying emotions that had brewed from the moment they met.
Rachel didn’t want to torture him. What she wanted to do was express her need for him. As a simple human being, the only way she knew how to do that was by putting her mouth and hands all over him, and hope that he got the message.
Based on how quickly he hardened in her mouth, he was getting some kind of message.
He said he was insecure about confessing his love for me. Because he didn’t know how I felt. Maybe this would help him know.
“Damn. Damn.” Zack pulled her hair to the side and rubbed the back of her neck with the tenderness of a man on the brink of losing himself to her. “I fucking love you, Rachel.”
She sat up with disbelief. “You did not confess when your dick was in my mouth.”
“Whoops.”
She was going to smack that smile off his face!
“Don’t you have something to say to me now?”
“Hmph.” Rachel grabbed his cock and kissed him, sending him back onto the bed with her on top of him. “I could. But I’d rather hear what it is you fantasize about when you think about me.”
“I already told you.”
“Yes, but that was before your cock was hard. Now you’re likely to give me more dirty details.”
“You drive the hardest bargain in this town.”
Rachel straddled him. The moment his erection rubbed against her ass, she knew she was about to make some serious decisions. “Fuck me, Zack. Now.”
“How did you know what I was fantasizing about?”
He didn’t waste their time by asking if she was sure, if she didn’t want to change her mind, or if she really knew what she was getting into by asking him to fuck her. This wasn’t going to be a jaunt down Climax Street with only his fingers inside of her and his tongue down her throat – this wasn’t last Tuesday night. Nor was it this Saturday, when his tongue plunged between her legs and she came so hard on his face that he quipped that was the closest he had come to drowning since taking up yachting. Rachel knew she was inciting him to fuck her with his cock. And it wasn’t going to be down her throat.
When Rachel landed beside him, naked and legs spread, she only wanted one thing. She had made the decision the moment they left the wedding reception. She didn’t need his love confession to make her retract her vow of celibacy two weeks before it was up.
She wanted him. She needed him. She had tortured herself long enough, flip-flopping on what it meant to have a relationship with a man like this. Before, she hadn’t intended to sleep with him until she slept with someone else first… or they decided to have a serious relationship.
Him saying that he loved her implied they now had something more. Rachel wasn’t about to call him her boyfriend until he could really give her what she wanted.
“Do it,” she begged while Zack’s hungry mouth traversed her naked body, sucking on her nipples and kissing her thighs. “Fucking do it. Now. Please!”
He could have teased her. He could have turned her into his toy and had his own kind of fun with her. But he didn’t. Zack was clearly on the same wavelength as her when he pushed his legs between hers and kissed her into sweet submission.
; Yes. This was exactly what she wanted. Trapped beneath him, her legs spread open wide and her whole body ready to take his.
Zack didn’t hesitate. As soon as the head of his hard cock pressed against her opening, he went for it. Rachel was so wet and relaxed, even with anticipation overcoming her, that one moment she had a vow of celibacy and the next it was utterly destroyed.
There was no stopping it once they got started. Not only was Zack completely enveloped around her, his cock so deep that she was pinned to his bed, but Rachel flung herself into every single motion blossoming between them. They didn’t need to ask petty questions like “Do you like it?” or “Does it feel good?” Not when they already understood each other on a more fundamental level. Taking things slowly over the past few weeks had done more good than Rachel could have anticipated. She may have not made it to the end of August without throwing herself at Zack, but the several weeks she did manage to wait were worth it.
She had never felt like she was one with a man before. Yet everywhere she turned her head, cocked her knee, or placed her hand, he was there, perfectly positioned to accept her affection and return it with as much gusto.
Like she could really feel his love with every kiss, caress, and thrust.
Lord, does he know how to thrust!
Rachel arched her back, determined to take him deeper. He did her one better. When Rachel’s back hit the bed again, he rolled her over and claimed her from behind.
“You wanted to know what I fantasize about?” he whispered in her hear. “This. Every fucking night.” He punctured his statement with thrusts hard enough to send her over the edge.
Funny how things really worked out. Because it so happened that Rachel had fantasized about this as well.
She forgot everything. The stress, the financial drains, the uncertainty toward her future… what was there to be anxious about when the man of her dreams fucked her like this? Zack was everything she wanted. Handsome, intelligent, self-motivated but still aware of his personal time… maybe they didn’t have the same exact hobbies, and maybe they didn’t have the same jobs, but everything was close enough that Rachel saw through the fog of intense, sexual pleasure and imagined a night like this every day for the rest of her life.