Just a Touch_A Heartthrob Hotel Novella

by Tabatha Kiss

  “Right there,” I gasp. “I’m gonna—”

  “Yes,” he groans.

  “I’m gonna—”

  “Jenny.”

  “Fuck!”

  I dig my nails into his chest, trying to hold on to something — anything — that will prevent me from losing control. Graham braces his arms, easily holding me up as climax rips through me. I bite down, trying not to scream as the moan of my life threatens to really solidify the chances of a noise complaint.

  Graham quickly sits up and wraps his arms around me. I collapse into his embrace, completely unable to do much of anything else but feel everything. My choking breath. My heat-stricken brow. My surging sex and his throbbing cock still buried inside. He holds me close, hands roaming my back and chest and neck and face. He kisses me wherever his lips will reach, patiently waiting for me to lift my head again.

  When I do, he starts thrusting.

  I ease back to rest my hands on his knees and he buries his face between my breasts. He bites and licks and sucks while his hands grip my waist, tightly holding me as he fucks me a little harder.

  “Jen…” he says, his breath warm on my sweat-covered skin, “can I come again?”

  I nod, my body still on fire. “Yes,” I answer, wanting him to join me.

  “Watching you do that…” He laughs, pausing to etch my hard nipple with his teeth. “Fuck, you’re beautiful, Jenny.”

  I kiss his forehead. “Thank you.”

  “Do it again tonight.”

  I hold onto his knees as his face pinches in climax. “Try and stop me,” I say.

  Graham lets out a final groan and halts his thrusts. I sit still on him, feeling the throbbing burst of his cockhead as he fills the condom between us.

  One down. The rest of the box to go…

  He wraps his arms around me again, holding me so close I feel the sweat drip off his brow onto my chest. His lips constantly purse, leaving kisses along my breasts as his hands slide up my back. I lean in to rest my arms on his shoulders and slowly guide him down to his back to give my legs a break.

  I hum in satisfaction as I climb off him and his member slides out of me. He instantly raises his arm and I run on auto-pilot, resting beside him with my head on his shoulder.

  Tired exhaustion washes over me but I don’t dare close my eyes to sleep. I lie still, completely wide awake, and listen to his pulse slowly lower down to normal levels.

  “That was nice,” I say, finally breaking the silence.

  “Nice?” he repeats.

  “Yeah.”

  “Just nice?”

  “Nice is good.”

  “But is nice really good?”

  I laugh and slap his chest, prompting him to grab my hand and bring it to his mouth. “Yes,” I say. “It’s fan-fucking-tastic.”

  “Good,” he says as he kisses my knuckles.

  “Good?” I mock.

  “Yeah.”

  “Just good?”

  Graham sighs. “Okay, that’s it—”

  I yelp in surprise as he suddenly rolls over and pins my hands over my head. He crushes his mouth on mine, chuckling softly as he playfully scolds me for being silly. I laugh with him, returning each one of his kisses until we’re both wildly out of breath again. It almost feels like…

  It almost feels like we never separated at all.

  Like this is just a normal night for us. This is just what Graham and I do on Friday nights. This is our lives and, oh baby, isn’t it wonderful?

  This is what tomorrow will be like, too.

  “Graham,” I say.

  “Yes, Jen?” he asks.

  My words catch in my throat, held back by a sudden attack of conscience.

  No. This is what tonight is like. Not tomorrow. There is no tomorrow here.

  This is one night. One night to replace the memories we have and give us the closure to move on.

  I kiss his cheek instead. “Cookie break?” I ask.

  Graham smiles and taps his nose against mine before releasing my hands and pushing up. “You read my mind,” he says.

  I prop up on my elbow, gladly watching his amazing ass as he walks across the suite. He pauses in the bathroom first, quickly depositing the used rubber in the trash and rinsing off his hands before grabbing the blue tin off the writing desk.

  “And some water, too!” I add. “Please.”

  He looks at me and smiles. “Coming right up,” he says.

  I sigh in satisfaction. “Such great service at these hotels of yours, Mr. Botsford,” I muse.

  “Well, Ms. Parker, please let me know how I can make your stay even better.” He stops beside the bed with the tin and a bottle of water. “I’d love to make you come again.”

  I roll my head back and laugh.

  Nine

  Graham

  I awaken to the sound of running water echoing out from behind the bathroom door across the suite. The sun is up, bleeding in through the open window to ensure I’m wide awake before I even sit up.

  Jenny.

  I look at the empty place beside me. I reach out, running a hand along the sheets. They’re still warm; still buzzing with the memory of her as much as I am.

  I brush my fingers through my hair, pushing it back out of my face. My cheeks bite back, desperately in need of a decent shave. Hope they weren’t too scratchy for her last night. She didn’t complain, that’s for sure.

  The clock reads 8:24. I’d planned to get up early, get in a good breakfast downstairs, and plow through paperwork for the rest of the day. Still can, I suppose, assuming…

  The showerhead turns off in the bathroom. I sit back against the headboard and wait.

  Assuming I can’t convince Jenny to make this more than just one night.

  The door slides open and she walks out with a towel wrapped tightly around her body. My cock instantly twitches at the sight of clean water sprinkled on her skin. I bite my tongue, wanting so badly to step off this bed, pin her to the wall, and lick it off every inch of her before that towel has a chance to steal my fun.

  Jenny looks at me as she gathers her wet, tattered hair to one side and pinches it with another towel. “Hi,” she greets, her eyes shamelessly dropping to my bare chest.

  “Hi,” I say back.

  She buries her nose in her towel. “God, I forgot how much I loved these,” she says, smiling.

  I chuckle. “Take a few. I won’t tell.”

  “Maybe I will.”

  We regard each other in a heavy, achingly wonderful silence. Is she thinking the same thing I am? That we should just say fuck it into the desert wind, lock the door, and never come out of this room ever again? We’d have everything we’d ever need and the rest would be a phone call away. The perks of having your name on the building but she knows all about that.

  Jen tosses her other towel over the back of the chair at the writing desk and shifts toward the closet. I watch her move, not caring for a second how my erection has started to tent the sheet on top of it. She slides the closet open and reaches in for a blue sundress.

  “Got somewhere to be?” I ask.

  Jen nods. “Oh, yeah. I need to get downstairs like... now-ish.”

  I twinge in disappointment. “Now-ish?”

  She walks her dress over and drapes it across the foot of the bed. “Almost slept through breakfast with my parents,” she says, shooting a glare at the clock. “Supposed to be down there at 8:30...”

  “Your parents, huh?” I scratch the back of my head. There goes any chance of me inviting myself along. “What are they up to nowadays?”

  Jen shrugs. “About the same as always,” she jokes. “My dad really wasn’t happy with the idea of Clara getting married here.”

  “Oh, yeah?” I feign shock. “What could he possibly have against this place?”

  She smiles. “But... what baby Clara wants...”

  “Baby Clara gets,” I finish.

  “She was just a kid when...” she pauses, taking a breath, “when you and I g
ot married here. She loved it, always fawned over the idea of a huge blue and gold Vegas wedding.”

  “In her defense...” I look up at her, hoping to catch her eye, “our wedding wasn’t half-bad for being thrown together at the last minute.”

  Jen looks at me and nods. “It was really nice.”

  More than nice.

  It was the best day of my life.

  Until last night.

  She turns away and grabs the damp towel off the chair to give herself something to do and distract herself from me. Classic Jenny.

  “It kills me,” I say.

  Her feet stop halfway into the bathroom and she’s forced to look back. “What does?”

  I shift a little taller. “That you’ve spent a decade thinking a certain way about me,” I say. “It kills me.”

  She swallows and sets the towel by the bathroom sink. “I’m sorry,” she says.

  “I mean, we...” I rub my jaw. “Who knows where we’d be by now, you know? Big house, a dozen kids…”

  Jen steps back into the room, her damp locks clinging to the side of her neck. “Would it really have made that much of a difference?” she asks.

  “You think it wouldn’t?”

  “I think we were right back then,” she says, shaking her head. “We weren’t ready for any of that.”

  “We would have been.”

  “We didn’t even think about it before we went to that chapel,” she says, her voice firm and truthful. “I mean really think. We had no idea what we were doing. Your family knew it. My family knew it. Fuck, my father still uses it against me any chance he gets.”

  “Your dad’s a dick,” I say. “Then and now.”

  Her lips twitch. “Do you really think that if we’d stayed together back then... that we’d still be together now?” she asks slowly.

  I open my mouth to answer, to cry out a hell yes, but it doesn’t quite surface.

  She nods. “I think, eventually, we would have realized how different we really were.”

  “We weren’t that different, Jen,” I say, wanting to argue more but it comes out weak.

  “You wanted a big family, just like yours. I’m a one-and-done kind of girl.”

  “My dad wanted me to have a big family,” I say, holding up a hand. “Gotta carry on that Botsford legacy…”

  “I wanted to travel and get out of the southwest once and for all,” she says, pointing at me. “But you belonged here. Your name is on the damn building.”

  “My name is on a lot of buildings all over the world. Pick one. We’ll go.”

  Jen tilts her head. “Graham.”

  “Look at us now, Jenny,” I say. “I’m the one traveling constantly. No legacy of my own...”

  “I got as far as Denver,” she says, crossing her arms. “Never did get to go on that Europe trip we talked about.”

  I exhale slowly. “Even apart, neither of us got what we wanted.”

  “See?” she says. “It wouldn’t have made a difference.”

  I push the sheet off and stand up. Her eyes flick downward only once as I walk over, nude and vulnerable as the day I was born.

  “What do you want now, Jennifer Parker?” I ask.

  She swallows hard. “What do you want now, Graham Botsford?”

  I raise a hand to touch her and she stiffens as I brush my thumb along her cheek. “I want—”

  “Shit.” Jen shifts backward, eyes locked at the bedside clock. “I should get going,” she says, purposefully talking over me. “Dad gets pissy when I’m late.”

  She turns away and lets the towel fall to the carpet. I bite down, taking in her heart-shaped ass for what might possibly be the last time ever as she slips the sundress off the hanger and steps into it. She quickly shimmies it up and over her curves and loops the sleeves onto her shoulders, obscuring that beautiful view.

  “Jen,” I say, still nude.

  “Can we talk about this later, Graham?”

  “When?”

  She bends over to fish a pair of clean panties out of her bag. “I don’t know.”

  I stand tall with my arms crossed, hoping to catch her sneaking another peek at what I’ve got on display. “After breakfast?” I ask.

  “No,” she answers. “After breakfast, I have to meet up with Clara and the other bridesmaids for a final fitting at the bridal shop.”

  “And after that?”

  She pulls her panties up under her dress. “After that is the rehearsal at the chapel.”

  “And after that?”

  “The rehearsal dinner.”

  “And after—”

  “Graham.” She finally looks at me and holds up a hand. “Stop.”

  I shrug. “Stop what?”

  “You know what.”

  “I just want to talk about last night, Jen. Like mature adults. Is that really so strange?”

  She blinks, her eyes dropping down my naked self again. “Honestly, yeah. A little. My brain doesn’t automatically associate the phrases Graham Botsford and emotional maturity in any significant way.”

  I chuckle. “That’s fair… but I grew up, Jenny. Just like you did. And I would like to request ten minutes of your time today to discuss how unbelievably sexy you looked last night when you sat on my face.”

  Jen drops her head and pinches her brow in an attempt to hide the smile taking over her lips. “Graham…”

  “Sorry,” I say. “Couldn’t resist.” I point a finger. “But seriously. We need to talk about last night. Now, preferably.”

  She glances at the clock with impatience.

  “You’re already late,” I say. “What’s the worse that could happen?”

  “You’ve obviously forgotten how passive aggressive my father can be.”

  I stare at her, silently flashing a sexy pout until she finally deflates.

  “Fine.” She sets her purse back down on the writing desk. “But can you at least put something on?”

  I shuffle toward my pants on the floor. “I do recall manhood being a hot topic of conversation last night but, if you insist…”

  She obscures her face again but not fast enough to hide the smile taking over once more. I won’t bust her on it, though. Jen’s trying hard to maintain her serious face about this and I should, too. This wasn’t your normal everyday hook-up here.

  I step into my pants and pull them up, shifting my junk out of place before grabbing the zipper. Not quite sure where my briefs are at the moment but I’ll find them eventually.

  Jen takes a seat at the writing desk, casually running her fingers through her wet hair. I’m sure if I weren’t here, she would have taken the time to dry and style it but it wouldn’t have mattered. Styled or not, she’s still the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever laid eyes on.

  I zip up and sit down on the corner of the mattress, facing her eager, impatient eyes. I won’t stall any longer.

  I know what I want.

  “I want to spend this weekend with you, Jenny,” I say.

  Jen shoots right back up off the chair. “Absolutely not,” she answers.

  I hold up a hand. “Why not?” I ask. “I’m not seeing anybody right now, are you?”

  “No,” she answers. “Though, now that you mention it, that’s really a conversation we should have had last night.”

  “Jenny, just hear me out, okay?”

  “It’s not a good idea, Graham.”

  “You’re right. It’s a great idea.”

  She scoffs. “Come on…”

  I stand up to face her, quickly taking hold of her hips before she can bolt away. “I saw a woman in my lobby yesterday,” I say. “She was frustrated and dripping wet and snarky but she made me smile. She took one look at me and my knees nearly collapsed beneath me.”

  Jen chuckles with doubt. “Bullshit.”

  “No bullshit.” I draw her closer. Our lips graze but I don’t go for the kiss just yet. “Once upon a time, I knew a girl. But now, I want to get to know the woman she became while I wasn’t looking.” I kis
s her cheek and she closes her eyes. “I want to stay up talking to her until sunrise. I want to feel the lightning in my gut when I make her laugh.” I kiss the clean moisture on her shoulder and lick my lips. “I want to be the man I always should have been for her.”

  Jen takes a moment to think before easing backward out of my hands. “No,” she says again.

  Damn.

  “No?” I repeat.

  She steps into her sandals by the closet door. “No.”

  “See, now…” I bite my cheek. “I thought that speech was pretty good.”

  “That speech was lovely,” she says, looking down.

  I wave my hands, hoping to get more out of her. “But…?”

  “But…” Jen grabs her purse again and exhales hard. “I’m going to breakfast. And when I get back, I want you to be gone. Okay?”

  My stomach flips, completely overrun by butterflies.

  I cross my arms again, standing taller. “Oh, so this is what we’re doing now, huh?” I muse.

  Jen furrows her brow. “What is what we’re doing now?” she asks.

  I smirk. “I remember this game like it were yesterday, Jen.”

  She digs her heels in with frustration. “What game?”

  “You almost had me fooled…” I wag a finger at her, “but you gave yourself away. I must admit, well done.”

  Her eyes narrow. “I don’t have time for this.”

  She spins around but I bolt forward, cutting her off just short of the door.

  “You want me to beg you for it,” I say.

  “I what?”

  “You want to watch me squirm on the end of your line for as long as possible before you finally cut me loose but you know I’ll be right back, swimming beneath your boat, because you’ve got the best bait in the whole darn pond.”

  Her face screws up. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “I seduced you once, Jennifer Parker.” I lean forward, dropping my voice to a silky whisper. “I’ll do it again.”

  She glowers. “So, how’s that emotional maturity really working out for you, Graham?”

  I chuckle, wringing my hands. “Okay, Jenny. We’ll play.”

  “Get out of my room.”

  I nod. “I’ll be out by the time you get back, I promise.”

  “No, I mean now.” She reaches beneath my arm and grabs the knob. “Get out.”