The Day I Stopped Falling for Jerks

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The Day I Stopped Falling for Jerks Page 24

by Monroe, Max


  He groaned and took another taste.

  And then another.

  Until he made love to me with his mouth, hitting all of the right spots with his tongue and sucking and eating at me like I was the best thing that had ever hit his lips.

  I didn’t last long after that.

  My body had been strung too tight for far too long, and it felt like only seconds before my hips and legs shook from the hard and fast release, and I moaned my climax into the otherwise silent room.

  But it wasn’t enough.

  I needed more.

  I needed him.

  I needed to know what he felt like inside of me.

  I sat up from the bed and reached out to unbutton and unzip his pants. His jeans and boxer briefs were on the floor between one panting breath and the next, and I gazed at his long, hard, and thick arousal.

  He was beautiful. Every single inch of him.

  I kneeled before him, wrapping my fingers around him and moving them up and down, enjoying how big he felt inside my hand.

  Ollie stared down at me, his brown eyes darkening with heat and lust and what I figured were all of the same things I was feeling.

  “Do you want my cock, little fire?” he asked, and I nodded, licking my lips as I did.

  “Yes,” I whispered back and wrapped my mouth around him. Hard and thick and big and velvety smooth, he felt so good against my tongue.

  He groaned, and his hips jolted farther when I took him a little deeper.

  “Bloody hell,” he muttered and reached down to lift me back onto the bed. “I need to be inside of you,” he said. “I need to feel that perfect little cunt wrapped around me.”

  Yes please, I thought.

  Because, dear God, in that moment, I was certain I’d never wanted anything more in my life.

  He reached into his jeans and pulled a condom out of his wallet, and it didn’t take long until he was sheathed and climbing over me, his bared and muscular body hovering over mine.

  Our gazes stayed locked as he slowly slid inside of me.

  Inch by inch, he filled me up.

  Stars danced behind my eyes when he was pressed to the hilt, and I was torn between the desire for him to stay like that forever or slide out just so I could feel him slide back in all over again.

  Time stood still and time blurred, and all I could focus on was how good he felt inside of me.

  How perfectly we fit together.

  How much I didn’t want it to end.

  I don’t know how long we lasted until we were both moaning out our release, but after we were done and I lay beside him, my head on his chest and my ears listening to the soft and steady sounds of his heart, I knew the memory of this moment would last forever.

  He had changed everything.

  And I was no longer trying not to fall.

  Instead, I’d fallen.

  [sighs]

  Fuck. I’d fallen so hard, so deep, so fast.

  To my core, I knew there was no going back.

  And the thing that made it the most confusing was that I didn’t have anything to compare it to. Didn’t have any past experiences that would help me make sense of it all.

  I’d thought I’d been in love before, but in reality, I’d never even come close to touching the concept.

  Even as I sit here, pouring out my heart and innermost secrets to you, I still can’t wrap my mind around how I’d finally found it—the moment I’d stopped searching.

  * * *

  Episode 17: “Pretty sure Lana Del Rey writes love songs about things like this.”

  I’d done the deed.

  I had sex with Ollie.

  [pauses]

  Holy moly, right?

  In the name of undeniable attraction and an irresistible pull, I felt like I’d sold my soul to the devil, and the scariest part of it all, I’d woken up the next morning without any regrets.

  Sure, I had fears. And uncertainties.

  But, regrets? Not a single one.

  If I could’ve done it all over again, I would’ve.

  Hell, I still would.

  Because I’d never felt the way I felt that night before, connected to Ollie in the most intimate way.

  It hadn’t been simply sex.

  It hadn’t been a moment of letting go of my inhibitions and letting my inner base desires lead me.

  It had been more than that. It had meant something. Sex with Ollie had changed something inside of me. It was like he had engraved himself beneath my skin.

  When I’d woken up that morning, fluttered my eyes open, and looked into that dark-chocolate gaze of his, I smiled.

  And he smiled right back.

  “Mornin’,” Ollie whispered, and the soft lilt of his voice felt like a smooth caress across my bare skin.

  We were still naked. Completely bared and exposed for each other’s gazes, and I didn’t hesitate to drink him in.

  Tanned, firm skin, and the kind of svelte muscles that men spend hours upon hours in the gym to achieve, Oliver Arsen was a picture-worthy sight to wake up to.

  Seriously. If I had been awake enough, or he still would’ve been asleep, I might’ve been tempted to snag my phone from the nightstand and snap a picture of him.

  [laughs softly]

  But instead, I just looked at him.

  I watched him look at me.

  I watched the way he gazed at me, my face, my eyes, my lips, until he moved down to the rest of my body that was visible above the sheets.

  When he reached the stopping point where my bared skin met white cotton, he smirked a mischievous little grin and reached out with his fingertips to just barely lift the sheet and peer at what was hidden beneath.

  “What are you doing?” I giggled and slapped his hand away.

  He had the audacity to shush me with a little push of air from his full lips. “Just give me a minute,” he said with a wink and reached out to slightly lift the sheet again. “I’m taking a trip down Memory Lane.”

  I blushed and giggled again. “And how’s that trip turning out for ya?”

  “Delicious.” He waggled his brows and peeked up at me from beneath his lashes. “I’m officially tempted to worship this perfect little body of yours and skip a pretty important business meeting.”

  “You have a meeting this morning?”

  He nodded, but he didn’t say anything else. Instead, he leaned forward and kissed along the edges of my breast. When that wasn’t enough, he sucked my nipple into his mouth, and a moan escaped his and my throat.

  “Bloody hell, I’d love to lose myself in you right now,” he whispered against my now aching skin. “Just fuck off for the day and spend the rest of the morning showing you just how much you drive me mad.”

  He kissed across my chest to my other breast, and when he sucked that nipple into his mouth, I started wondering if I could reschedule the interview I had planned for the day.

  I was supposed to meet with a female surfer and her coach over brunch.

  I had been excited at the prospect of hearing a woman’s point of view of what it was like to compete in the Professional Surfing League.

  But when Ollie moved up my body and took my mouth in a deep kiss, all sorts of excuses started to formulate in my brain…

  Sorry, I need to reschedule because there is a gorgeous, naked man in my bed, and I just can’t find the willpower to leave it.

  Mind moving the interview to dinner? I’m having a hard time finding the strength to put on pants.

  [giggles]

  Yeah. That sort of thing.

  But obviously, I couldn’t actually follow through with that.

  No matter how undeniably amazing sex with Ollie had proven to be, I had responsibilities. I had a career. And hell, I wouldn’t have even been in this bed, kissing this irresistible man, had it not been for the opportunities of said career.

  “Shit,” I muttered against his lips and did my best to slow the kiss to a stop. “You’re making this insanely hard right now.”

>   “On the contrary, sweetheart, you are the one making me insanely hard right now.”

  I laughed at that and shoved his big, perfect body away from me and hopped out of bed before he could charm me into forgetting about my responsibilities and losing myself in him completely.

  He tried to reach for me with his hands, but I jumped out of the way with a teasing smile.

  “Don’t even think about it,” I said and grabbed the hotel robe off the back of the closet door and wrapped it around myself as fast as possible.

  “In a hurry?” he asked with a wink from the bed.

  “Yep,” I answered and tightened the white cotton belt around my waist. “Someone has to be the voice of sanity here.”

  “I can cancel my meeting.”

  “Yeah, but I can’t cancel the interview I have planned,” I retorted and glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand. “Speaking of which, I need to be there in like an hour. So you need to get your ass out of my hotel room so I can get ready.”

  “You kicking me out, little fire?” he asked with a pout, and I pointed an index finger toward him.

  “That little pout isn’t going to work.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “Positive.”

  Was I positive? Not really.

  And, of course, he didn’t miss a beat…

  “Then why are you still standing there and not heading into the bathroom to get ready?”

  “Shut up.”

  He laughed at that, but eventually, he got out of bed and started slipping on his boxer briefs and jeans. “All right, I’ll leave you to it, but I’m demanding you let me see you again tonight.”

  “Demanding?” I asked with a defiant hand to my hip.

  He was completely unfazed. Ollie strode toward me, pulled me into his arms with a little squeal from my throat, and pressed a hard and deep kiss to my mouth.

  “Tonight,” he whispered against my lips, and I couldn’t find the strength or reason to disagree.

  “Tonight.”

  A few minutes later, he was fully dressed and leaving my hotel room.

  The door clicked shut behind him, and I headed for the shower.

  But all the while, my lips still tingled from his kiss.

  And all I could think was, that sexy bastard sure knows how to make an unforgettable exit.

  Because he did.

  Thoughts of him filled my head while I got ready and lingered through my Uber ride to the restaurant until I sat down across from the two women I’d be interviewing that morning.

  Sage Gilmore was a twenty-two-year-old, up-and-coming American surfer who had more than made her mark in this year’s women’s championship competition.

  She was blond. Beautiful. And could pull off a pair of cutoff jean shorts and a half-shirt like it was no one’s business.

  Not to mention, her coach, thirty-five-year-old Amelia Erickson, was just as easy on the eyes, if not more. From what I’d read up on her, she’d retired from the circuit at the young age of thirty, far earlier than anyone would’ve liked for her to. She was also blond, but her big blue eyes were even more striking than Jordy’s.

  And that was saying a lot.

  Prior to the meeting, I’d done some research on the two of them, but to say I knew the ins and outs of their lives and careers would’ve been a bit of an exaggeration.

  To be honest, I preferred it that way.

  Always prefer it that way.

  As a journalist, I feel it’s my job to go into an interview with an unbiased opinion.

  And I’m sure you’re all well aware just how biased the media can be sometimes.

  But going into that meeting, I’d felt confident that I knew enough to obtain a successful interview.

  [audible sip of water]

  Both Sage and Amelia were sweet as pie, and by the time we’d ordered our breakfast and I’d dived in to the hard-hitting questions, things could not have been going any better.

  Sage was candid in her responses, and Amelia appeared at ease with chiming in with insightful tidbits about Sage’s career and how a girl so young could already have one championship under her belt and be pretty damn close to obtaining another.

  “Tell me your thoughts on how the men are treated in the Professional Surfing League compared to the women.”

  Sage took a bite of her egg white omelet while she thoughtfully considered my question.

  “You know,” she started, “I think when it comes to athletes and professional sports in general, there’s always been a bit of inequality when it comes to men and women. And that definitely extends outside of sports. But over the past few years that I’ve been on the circuit, I’ve seen huge strides toward things becoming more equal in terms of pay, opportunities, sponsorship deals, and how men and woman surfers are treated overall. Do I think it’s completely equal?” she asked and shrugged. “No, probably not, but do I think it’s heading in that direction? Yes, I definitely do.”

  “That’s refreshing to hear,” I said, and Amelia nodded.

  “I agree. Things are a lot different from when I was surfing competitively.”

  “Amelia, you left the circuit five years ago, right?”

  She nodded again. “Yep. I was thirty at the time, and a lot of people were pretty upset about the fact that I’d just up and walked away from it all.”

  “She walked away right after she’d won her third championship,” Sage added with a proud smile.

  “Really?”

  Amelia nodded.

  “What made you do it?”

  “I’m sure most people would say it has everything to do with Oliver Arsen,” Sage chimed in and grinned at her coach.

  “You’re probably right.” Amelia laughed and rolled her eyes, but I’d tilted my head to the side at the mention of Ollie’s name.

  [sighs]

  Are you also wondering what Ollie had to do with Amelia’s surfing career?

  Yeah, we’re on the same page, then.

  And don’t worry, I asked…

  “Why would they think it has something to do with Oliver Arsen?”

  Amelia shrugged. “We’d been in a relationship. Actually, we were engaged at the time, but it’d ended before it progressed to marriage. And, well, we had a relatively public breakup just before I officially retired from surfing competitively.”

  My heart pretty much jumped up into my throat when she said the word engagement.

  Ollie had been engaged?

  What the fuck, right?

  “And, of course,” Sage chimed in, “people think we women are these emotional, delicate creatures who’d give up their careers just because of a damn breakup.”

  “So true.” Amelia laughed at that, and I had to force a brittle smile to my face just to hide the fact that the proverbial rug had been pulled out from under my feet.

  My brain raced around the whole Ollie’s prior engagement thing.

  That had been news to me.

  Big, shocking, jaw-fucking-dropping news.

  I felt like someone had sucker-punched me with it.

  And let me tell you, it took a Herculean effort not only to hide that shock, but to continue on with the interview without asking inappropriate questions about Amelia’s past engagement to Ollie.

  A million thoughts sped through my brain, and I struggled to get through that brunch.

  I remembered my conversation with Ollie at the Burger Shack.

  I remembered how he said he’d never been in a serious relationship before.

  Why had he lied about that?

  Why hadn’t he just told me the truth?

  It was in the past, right? What did it matter that he’d had a failed engagement?

  I’m sure you can imagine how confusing it all was in the moment.

  And I wish I could tell you it got easier from there.

  But it didn’t.

  Once I finished that interview, it only got more complicated…

  [deep sigh]

  So, I’d gone back
to my hotel room, and instead of calling Ollie and outright asking him, I let my curiosity get the best of me. I’d pulled out the old laptop and started researching every news and media source I could find about Amelia Erickson and Oliver Arsen.

  All I had to do was type their names into the Google search bar, and millions of hits filled my results. They started back eight years ago.

  Ollie Arsen and Amelia Erickson: Surfing’s hottest new couple!

  Interview with Oliver Arsen: Waves, championships, and his lady love Amelia.

  Ollie and Amelia: The surfing world is officially in love with their love!

  Exclusive: Ollie proposed, and she said yes!

  And when the dates were merely five years ago, the tone shifted.

  Breaking News: Surfing’s favorite couple has called off their engagement.

  Ollie and Amelia sell their Huntington Beach home.

  Ollie cheated. Amelia devastated.

  Amelia Erickson announces retirement just two months after breakup with Oliver Arsen.

  To say I felt like I’d been steamrolled would’ve been an understatement.

  Not only had Ollie lied about never having a serious relationship, when he’d mentioned his Huntington Beach house, he’d never even mentioned the fact that it had been a shared beach home with his ex-fiancée.

  Add in the whole part about him cheating on Amelia and the media showcasing him as the world’s biggest jerk, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it all.

  I wasn’t naïve. I knew how things worked with the media, especially when it came to celebrity breakups and shit like that, but I couldn’t shake the fact that no matter the reason for his breakup with Amelia, he’d lied to me.

  For some reason, he had felt the need to hide the details of his past from me.

  It was the whole dishonesty part that waved in front of my face like a giant red flag.

  Before I could stop myself, I picked up my phone and called the one person who I knew could give me details.

  Allie.

  She answered by the second ring, and it was when she greeted me that I realized how very stupid and impulsive this call really was.

 

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