As I tuned off the water, she rose to her feet. We kissed, and I carried her to bed, leaving drops of water in our wake. Absence hadn’t made my heart grow fonder. It wasn’t possible for me to love Arielle more. Having her naked and sprawled across my dark covers was a dream come true. The second my tongue sliced through her wet pussy my heart rate spiked. Her nectar was addictive. I savored her sweet flavor with deep languorous licks.
“Please don’t tease me,” she whispered as her fingers pulled against my ears. “Make me come.”
I winked and latched onto her pulsing nub. The way she moaned my name vibrated through me and filled my heart to the brink. I slipped two fingers into her tight channel, twisted and pressed until she was thrashing in ecstasy. I reached up her body and pinched her nipple as I sucked harder on her clit. Arielle whimpered as she gifted me with her climax.
Her body continued to tremble as I kissed my way towards her mouth. Her nipples were hard and begged for attention. I nibbled on her rosy peak and squeezed her breasts. They more than filled my hands. Her curves were spectacular.
“I love your body,” I said as I released her nipples and gripped my cock. Sliding the head through her moisture, I coated the tip and teased her entrance. “We’re not using a condom. I want to take you raw.”
“No complaints here. I don’t want any barriers between us.” She opened her thighs wider as she trailed her nails over my shoulders and pulled my torso closer.
Our eyes locked and her hot breath blew over my mouth as I pushed inside with one hard lunge. Her pussy hugged me like a tight fist. Hot, wet, and all mine. I captured her big, red lips and ground my pelvis against hers. The urgent kiss conveyed exactly how desperate we both were for this connection.
I pumped my hips, relishing the slippery slide and skintight fit. Arielle arched into me, linking us together. Our grunts and moans grew louder as we picked up the tempo. We moved as one, chasing the same future. When her body stiffened, her pussy squeezed me tighter and pulled me over the edge with her. We came together and I emptied my release deep into her womb.
I didn’t pull out until our breathing had returned to normal. We moved under the covers. Arielle giggled and covered her mouth as she snuggled against my body.
“That was even better than the first time,” she said, and kissed above my heart. “Making love with you is beyond…”
“Beyond anything I’ve ever felt before. I love you. It’s a big step moving in together, but I’m happy you are here with me. We belong together.”
“I couldn’t agree more. I want to be here with you. Every day.”
I never pressed her for an answer about marriage because I wanted a do-over with my proposal. That trip wasn’t planned for us, but we made the most of it. I knew my next move, but first I made love to her again until neither of us could keep our eyes open and sleep took over.
Chapter 10
ARIELLE
For over a month, I’d been floating on cloud nine. Making love to my soulmate wasn’t the same as any sexual encounter that came before. No matter how much my logical mind tried to rationalize the epic orgasms as normal, they weren’t. The emotional and physical connection I had with Dean was intense and life changing.
“Arielle, I’ll be right back.” Dean kissed my cheek and squeezed my shoulders. “Don’t move. Stay right where you are.”
He hesitated and took a deep breath as if he was waiting for a response to a question he hadn’t asked. I lifted my eyebrow. He’d been acting strange all day. We’d come to his shop after hours to work on our new project. A 1965 Chevy Chevelle. She was in rough shape, but with some elbow grease, we’d get it restored to its former glory.
I chuckled and waved him away. “I’ll be here.”
As he disappeared into the office, the magnetic pull urged me to follow, but I waited in the middle of the shop as requested. Since the moment we’d met, I’d been drawn to him. Besides his amazing good looks, he had a heart of gold and he made me laugh. My brand of humor and crazy gelled with his. We complimented each other. But it wasn’t until I was single that I fully understood my feelings towards my best friend.
I’d taken for granted the daily phone calls, the countless hours spent tinkering with cars and how no matter what happened in our lives we had each other’s backs. He was better than a boyfriend and more than my best friend.
The transition from friends to lovers was seamless. Living with Dean and sharing his bed made me happy. I’d actually been disappointed when I got my period three days after our return, but my boyfriend removed my frown with a kiss. His kisses never ceased to take my breath away. With the amount of unprotected sex we had, starting a family was inevitable. I was perfectly content with sooner than later. Not because I didn’t love my new job with Wellington Corp. Working with Richard and his father was phenomenal. The hours were long, but I remained determined to pay Rich back before I went on maternity leave. I rocked on my heels and rubbed my belly as I waited for Dean’s return. We had so much to discuss when we got home.
The shop lights turned off, leaving me in total darkness. My heart rate increased as I searched for the nearest exit. The red light above the door caught my eye, then I gasped when rows of patio lanterns flickered on. Dean stepped towards me. He’d changed from his coveralls into dark jeans and a pale blue t-shirt. The same outfit he’d been wearing when we met.
“Arielle you’re as beautiful today as the day we met. You’ve had my heart wrapped around your finger since that day. It’s time I put something else on your finger.” He grabbed my left hand and dropped to one knee. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” I mouthed.
“We don’t need candles, ocean waves or soft music to create romance. It burns between us no matter where we are and that will never change. I promise to love and protect you for the rest of my life. Will you be my wife?”
Tears filled my eyes, making it tough to see him. I blinked them away and jumped on him, tackling him to the floor. “Yes. I will marry you.”
My lips claimed his as he fumbled to place a ring on my finger. It fit, but I was too busy making love to his mouth to care what it looked like. The ring didn’t matter. I couldn’t wait to say my vows and pledge my eternal love to him in front of our family and friends.
“I love you so much, and I can’t wait for you to be my husband.” I covered his body with mine and purred as his hard cock settled between my legs. “Why did you wait so long to ask again?”
He growled as I lifted my dress above my hips and unzipped his jeans. “Not sure I ever asked before. Not properly at least. I pretty much demanded you move in and marry me.”
With one tug on his briefs, his long, thick cock filled my hand. I lowered myself onto him and moaned at the exquisite stretch. He filled me perfectly; like he was the missing piece to my puzzle.
“Go on,” I encouraged as I rode him faster. “Why make me wait all these weeks. You teased me with the prospect of marriage and then left me hanging. Should I keep you hanging?”
Dean hissed and gripped my hips, rising to thrust deep into me. “You’re mine. Legal or not.”
“Yes. I. Am.” I planted my hands on his muscular chest, tossed my head back and howled as my climax neared.
“This is the exact spot where I stood when I realized no one else would ever fill my heart but you. You are the only woman I’ve ever loved or will ever love. I’ve had a ring since our first week back. Tonight, was the first night my pops agreed to close early. Fuck… Don’t stop.”
Pumping my hips to the racing beat of my heart, I couldn’t hold back. The joy bubbling inside burst to the surface. As the first wave of euphoria splashed over me, I screamed. “Dean! Oh! Right there!”
“Give it to me.” His blue eyes locked with mine and demanded everything. “Arielle!”
He came with a roar and emptied every drop deep within me. I collapsed on his chest and let the love cover over both of us. I drew Mr. and Mrs. over his heart with the tip of my finger and star
ed at my ring. It was the same classic, princess cut I’d found online months before when I’d planned to spend my life with someone else. My heart constricted. So much had changed in such a short time.
“You remembered the ring?” My voice was heavy with emotion and I struggled to get the words out.
“We were together when you found it. I remembered how your eyes lit up and I wanted to be the man to give it to you. This backdrop of old cars and tools doesn’t compare to—”
“No one else gets me like you. This is my favorite place because it’s where you’re the happiest. You make me happy.”
“Good.” He threaded his hands and placed them behind his head. An air of contentment washed over him. “I worried this wasn’t enough. Not sure anything could make me happier than I am right this second.”
“Bet I can.”
“Try.”
I gazed into his eyes and couldn’t bite my tongue any longer. “I’m pregnant.”
His smile was so big it filled the massive garage. “Took long enough.”
“You are going to be a husband and a father.”
He flipped me onto my back and kissed me until my toes curled. Then he licked down my chest and stopped when he reached my belly. He peppered the area with affection and whispered sweet nothings to our unborn child.
“Let’s go tell my family the good news,” he said as he helped me to my feet and righted his pants. “They already know about the wedding, but a baby will blow them away.”
Telling his family about our relationship had been comical. They’d taken turns hugging us and said it was about time. Less than a week after I moved in, they’d begun the search for a bigger house for us to grow into. Being welcomed into his family meant the world to me. I had no doubt his folks would be over the moon to welcome their first grandchild.
My parents hadn’t reacted as favorably to our union. They were coming around, but it bothered them that we’d decided to live in Lakeside rather than find an apartment closer to them and my job. This place was home. I couldn’t imagine living or building a family anywhere else.
My legs were unsteady, but I clutched his arm for support. “Our marriage and baby should take the pressure off Blake for a little while. He’s on the verge of snapping if your folks don’t lay off about settling down soon.”
“Blake and Owen are used to it. Charlie hasn’t graduated high school yet, and they still bug him about picking the right girl. Pops just wants us to have the same kind of love he found. I get it now because I have you.”
“We’re in this together.” I threaded our fingers and kissed my fiancé.
Once we were strangers who bumped into one another. A spark and common interest brought us together again. We built a strong foundation as friends. But we were meant to be more. We were destined to be lovers, to be married, to be parents and to live happily ever after.
Epilogue
DEAN
Gregarious laughter tickled my ears as I stepped into my backyard. My pops and cousin, Owen, raced ahead while I closed the gate behind us. After a long day of fighting with an engine swap, I was glad to be home. I smiled, and I followed the giggles towards the river where my family had set up a picnic. My daughter sounded exactly like her mother. Cleo wasn’t even one yet, but her laugh could wake the dead.
“Hi, little one. What’s so funny?” I scooped my baby off the grass and kissed the top of her still nearly bald head. Even though I’d washed my hands repeatedly before leaving the shop, a smudge of grease dotted the corner of her pink onesie.
My old man claimed she was the spitting image of me as a baby, but I thought she looked more like my wife. Cleo had Arielle’s flawless complexion and full, ruby red lips, but she shared my eye color. She was perfect.
Arielle gasped and clutched her chest as she turned towards me; her pregnant belly grazed my arm. At the start of her second trimester, she was radiant. Her skin had a sexy glow, her hair was thicker, and her libido was raging.
“Happy anniversary.” I stole a quick kiss and grabbed her hand. “Glad after all these months together, I still take your breath away.”
She smiled and rolled her eyes. “You startled me. But I won’t deny I find you irresistible.” She covered my mouth again and groped my ass. She didn’t release me until I was panting for more and hard as a rock. “Happy anniversary.”
“Don’t be kissing like that in front of my grand-baby. Give her to me and then go do that stuff in the privacy of your bedroom.” My mother-in-law held out her hands to take my daughter.
I hugged Cleo and breathed her in before passing her along. “Cleo will get used to it like I did. You do realize my folks still kiss like this all the time in public, right?” I pointed at the pair standing along the water’s edge.
My parents were lost in each other and oblivious to the eyes watching them. Ma had two fists full of pops hair as she attacked his mouth. He held her body against his and kissed her like he was starved for her taste. I’d learned everything about passion from those two, and I loved that they never held back. If I’d followed their lead, I might have started my happily ever after sooner.
“It wouldn’t hurt you two to act slightly more reserved,” Arielle’s mother chastised.
Her version of reserved meant sleeping in separate beds and glancing at one another from across the room. I couldn’t live like that.
Since we’d returned from Mexico, Arielle and I hadn’t spent a single night apart. Not even the night before our wedding. I’d tried to go the traditional route, but Arielle wouldn’t stand for it. She’d handcuffed me to the bed and refused to leave my side. I loved her passion.
“No thanks.” Arielle slipped her hand in the back pocket of my jeans and squeezed my ass. “I plan to spend every moment I can touching and kissing my husband for the rest of my life.”
“Damn right!” I captured my wife’s succulent lips again and pulled her into my arms.
After a year of wedded bliss, our connection had only grown stronger.
“Your mommy and daddy are incorrigible. Let’s go sit by the picnic tables and find you a bottle.”
“If your mom is willing to watch Cleo, we should escape for a while,” I whispered into her ear and rubbed my erection against her tiny baby bump.
Her purr was music to my ears. “We can’t. At least not yet. We have to do the gender reveal first. That’s why everyone is here.”
“You’re right. Love making will have to wait. Why did you plan this on our anniversary?”
“Because it’s a present for both of us and because there are built-in babysitters scattered around our backyard.” She tapped her fingers against my head.
“Smart and beautiful. I am damn lucky to have you. Thanks for marrying me.”
“Feeling is mutual.”
“I don’t care if it’s a boy or girl, as long as the baby is healthy and looks like you.”
Our little girl had come twenty days early after a rough twenty-four hours of hard labor. Watching Arielle endure the contractions for that long had given me a new respect for my wife. Hands down, the strongest and most determined woman I’d ever met. After the hell she went through, I expected she’d never want to go through it again. But less than eight weeks later, we were pregnant again.
“If memory serves, I told you the first could be a surprise, but the others would be planned.”
I nibbled her ear and licked down her neck. “Neither baby was planned, but—”
She pushed my face away from her skin. “Oh, these babies were planned. We both knew exactly what would happen when you filled me with your super sperm.” She covered her mouth and giggled when her mother harrumphed.
“Honestly, Arielle. That mouth.” The woman shook her head and cooed at Cleo.
“Sorry,” she giggled.
“I love your mouth. I love everything about you. From your big beautiful brain to your tiny toes painted with pink and blue polish. You’re really taking this gender guessing stuff to the next level.”
Looking around our private five-acre, country oasis, I spotted blue and pink ribbons and balloons hanging from every tree. There had to be well over a hundred.
“Still think it’s a boy?”
My hands covered her belly. “Maybe. Then again, I guessed Cleo was a boy.”
“Everyone guessed she was a boy. I carried so low and her heart rate was—”
“Not everyone,” Richard chimed in from his seat next to my father-in-law. “I guessed a girl, and I guess you’re having another girl.”
My wife’s ex was a big part of our lives. He was her boss and our daughter’s godfather. My brothers and cousin were less than thrilled, but I owed him. If he hadn’t been too scared to commit, I would never have ended up with his ticket to paradise. I like to think I would have eventually confessed my love to her, but I needed those days alone without distractions to woo her. Flirting can only get a man so far.
Arielle winked at me. “Ready to find out?”
“Let’s go cut the cake,” I announced and waved for everyone to join us. “Then we can practice for next time,” I said low enough for only my wife to hear.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Hand in hand we walked towards a dessert table covered with a blue and pink checkered tablecloth. A large round cake would reveal the gender. The icing was white and gave nothing away. Once we cut into it, the cake would either be blue or pink. The guests were also given confetti poppers that would scatter pink or blue ribbons over our lawn. We grabbed the cutting knife together.
“Three. Two. One,” everyone counted together.
Beyond Friends: Big Flirt Book One Page 7