by K. A. Linde
Like now.
“But you can have it tonight,” I told him.
He grinned. “I think you’re a bit drunk tonight.”
“So? You wouldn’t be taking advantage of me.”
“Oh, I most certainly would be.”
I shrugged off the suit jacket he had thrown on my shoulders earlier, leaving me in nothing but my jean shorts and tank top. I moved over to where he was standing, half-in and half-out of my bedroom. My hands fell to his belt buckle.
“You don’t look like you want to be in this suit anymore.”
“I’d be happy to burn the suit.”
“Did she touch your suit?” I asked, my voice gritty and sharp.
“She looked at it. That was enough for me.”
“Me, too. Definitely burning it.” I unbuckled the belt and then fumbled with the button before sliding down the zipper. My eyes were still glued on his. “We’ll probably have to take it off first.”
He chuckled hoarsely. “You’re going to be the death of me.”
I grinned. My fingers slipped the knot of his tie free and let it loose. Then, I worked up the buttons of his crisp white shirt. I fumbled a few times as I tried in my haste to get the shirt off, but he grinned and eased out the last few buttons. I pressed my hands against his rock-hard abdomen and then up his smooth, cut chest. My nails dug into his shoulders as I pushed his shirt off his smoking-hot body.
God, he was sexy as hell. I wanted him naked like I hadn’t wanted anything else. The alcohol might be fueling me, but it didn’t change anything about how much I wanted him.
“Fuck, Heidi,” he said.
He leaned into me and captured my lips. His kiss was urgent and needy. He wanted this as much as I did. Our bodies crashed together, and soon, I was pressed back against a post on my bed. His hands reached for my jean shorts and popped the button.
“Every guy in the fucking bar wanted in these shorts.” He grabbed my ass with one hand as he shoved his other down the front of my shorts. “It killed me that I wasn’t with you, that I couldn’t claim you right then and there.”
He swirled his finger around my clit, and I gasped against him. Everything felt heightened. My skin tingled. My heart jackhammered in my chest. My fingers dug into his biceps. My body gave in to the sensations that only Landon Wright elicited. He was a match that struck a fire within me.
“Oh, yeah? Is that why you were willing to throw me over your shoulder?”
“I was willing to do a lot more than that. I would have been perfectly happy with bending this hot ass over the pool table.”
“And here I thought, I was the jealous one,” I told him.
He gently lifted my chin until I looked up into his dark eyes. “You do not have a single thing to be jealous about. You are my one and only.”
I leaned into his embrace and tenderly kissed him.
He was too good to be true. He was proving to be everything I’d ever wanted. It was hard for me not to think that something might happen to change that. Especially with Miranda in town. But here we were, in my bedroom, and he only had eyes for me.
He stripped me out of my shorts, and soon, my tank top followed. Every place that he touched me, my body was scorching. A trail of heat spread straight between my legs. I whimpered at his touch as he leaned me backward onto the bed.
His cock jutted out of his boxer briefs, and he easily freed himself, dropping his underwear to the floor. I reached out and wrapped my hand around him. I stroked him up and down until his eyes glazed over, and he practically ripped my underwear off.
“You don’t want me to finish?” I asked, licking my lips.
“God, yes, but I want inside your pussy more.”
He gripped my hips and pressed the tip of his dick against my opening. I moaned and arched backward. He pushed a little further and then eased out. I thought I was going to explode if he didn’t continue. We’d talked over the weekend about the fact that I was on the pill, but I could still feel him hesitate.
“Landon, please,” I whimpered.
“You’re sure?” he asked.
I wrapped my legs around his waist and pulled him closer to show him how sure I was. “God, please, fuck me.”
He didn’t need to be told twice.
Landon thrust forward then all the way. Our bodies collided together, roughly and fully. He grabbed my hands and pushed them over my head. Holding them in place, he gripped my hips and started driving into me. All the frustration and tension and jealousy that had bottled up between us seemed to explode in that moment.
Here, we were together.
Here, the rest of the world didn’t exist.
Here, he wasn’t my boss.
We were just two people taking what we could get—to hell with the consequences.
“Oh, fuck, Heidi,” he said, leaning over me to steal a kiss. “You feel so fucking good.”
“Oh God, yes,” I panted.
He picked up his tempo. Our bodies rocked together. And, soon, the bruising pace sent me straight over the edge. I cried out his name into the night as he came with me.
Our bodies were slick with sweat, our lips swollen. And I had never felt better.
“I think I need a shower.”
I giggled unavoidably. “Yes. We both do.”
“Come on, firecracker. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Landon eased out of me, and then we both headed into the shower. Exhaustion settled over my whole body as soon as the hot spray hit my skin. I could have slept for days after that. Landon must have noticed the fight go out of my limbs because he did most of the work. He took his time in lathering up my body with the eucalyptus bath soap I adored. His hands were deft and slippery. He ran his fingers through my long hair and massaged my scalp. It was heavenly, and it made me forget for a little bit longer what was to come later this week. The real reason I was irritated and weary.
Once we were both clean, Landon wrapped a towel around my shoulders and kissed my lips. “You look tired. Why don’t you crawl into bed, and I’ll find you some clothes?”
I nodded absentmindedly and walked to the bed. I toweled off most of the water and then knotted the towel in my hair before climbing into bed. My body succumbed to the soft comforter and down pillows on contact. I vaguely heard Landon slip back into his boxer briefs and rummage through my drawers.
“T-shirts are in the closet,” I mumbled.
“You hang up all your T-shirts?”
“Yes. I’m a bit obsessive.”
He laughed and then entered the walk-in closet, flicking on the overhead light. He returned a minute later with a high school cheerleading shirt in hand and a pair of underwear.
“No shorts?” I asked, pushing the covers back and sitting up to slide into the clothes.
“I’d love to keep you naked all night, but I think you need to sleep. And I want to be able to grab your ass.”
I laughed as I tugged on the T-shirt. “You’re ridiculous.”
“Probably,” he said with a shrug. “Hey, what are all those letters in there?”
I froze in place, my hand halfway to pulling my hair out of the towel. “What?” I squeaked.
“You realize you have a huge collection of letters in a box in your closet, right?” he said with an easy laugh as he walked around to the other side of the bed.
“You went through my letters?” I asked, panicked.
“No.” He turned to look at me, as if just realizing that I was freaking out. “I just saw them. They’re sitting out in the open.”
“They’re nothing. Forget about them,” I said a little too hastily.
“Heidi—”
“I said, forget about them.” I raised my voice and stormed into the bathroom to hang up my towel. My hands were shaking as I put it on a hook on the back of the door, and my stomach was in knots. I hadn’t even thought about him seeing the letters. I hadn’t considered he would ask.
Landon knocked twice on the bathroom door and sighed. “Heidi, come out
here, please.”
I took a deep breath and opened the door. “Hey.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that would upset you. I was legitimately curious.”
I nodded twice and then stepped into his open arms. “It’s…it’s okay. I just…I wasn’t prepared.”
“It’s okay. Let’s go to bed, all right?”
I nodded.
We crawled into bed, and Landon turned off the last light, casting us into darkness. He pulled me tight against his chest and kissed my shoulder. I lay there, completely content with just listening to the rise and fall of his chest and his gentle breathing. I waited until I was sure he was almost asleep before getting up the guts to say anything.
“They’re from my dad,” I whispered.
It was the first time I had ever said that aloud. I was pretty sure Emery knew, but we didn’t talk about it.
“I thought they might be,” Landon said into my shoulder.
“I don’t answer them.”
“Ever?”
“Not once in six years.”
Landon sighed softly. “Is that when he went to prison?”
I nodded. My voice was hoarse when I said, “Six years on Saturday.”
“That’s a long time not to talk to him.”
“Not long enough,” I countered.
Landon pressed another kiss into my shoulder. I thought he knew not to press me on it and that it was a big step that I had even told him this much. As often as we had talked before and as much as everyone in the town knew about Hank Martin’s illegal affairs, no one ever dared to talk about it with me.
“And, on Saturday…are you going to be okay?”
“I usually spend the day alone,” I admitted.
“I don’t want you to be alone this year,” he told me. “Not anymore. Not when you have me. Okay?”
I nodded because words were failing me. “Okay.”
Twenty-Six
Heidi
I woke up to the sound of the door slamming, and Emery yelling my name, “Heidi?”
“Oh, fuck,” I murmured.
Landon groaned next to me and tugged me closer to him. Either he was the deepest sleeper ever or he simply didn’t care that my best friend, his freaking ex-girlfriend, was about to walk in on us while we were half-naked.
“Landon,” I said, shoving him. “Get up. Get up. Get up. You need to…like, hide in the closet.”
His brown eyes slowly opened and stared up at me. He had a sexy grin on his face and said, “Morning.”
“Landon, come on.”
“Did you say, hide in the closet?” he asked, as if just processing what I’d said.
“Yeah, Emery is—”
Just then Emery burst into the room, dressed in a pair of tiny black shorts and an oversize black T-shirt. It could have been Jensen’s.
“Oh, shit,” Emery said.
“Home,” I finished.
Landon languidly rolled over and stretched his arms over his head. “Morning, Em.”
“Oh my God,” she said, holding her hands up over her eyes. “That was not…I mean—fuck. I’m just going to—yep, all right then.” She stumbled backward out of the doorway.
I groaned. “Ugh!”
Landon laughed, reaching for me. “Why are you so embarrassed?”
I pushed him back into the pillow. “You are such a dude.”
“Hey, hey,” he said, holding up his hands. “She’s the one dating my brother.”
I threw my pillow at him as I jumped out of bed. “And do you want to see her in bed with him?”
He scrunched up his nose.
“Yeah, I didn’t think so.”
I knotted my hair up on the top of my head as I left my bedroom to go find my best friend. “Hey, Em?”
“In here,” Emery called from her bedroom.
“Hey.”
She waved her hand as she dug through her closet for clothes to wear to work.
“Sorry about that.”
“It’s no big,” she said. “I just…was a hundred percent unprepared for that.”
“Yeah, I guess it’s probably pretty weird.”
Emery shot me a no-shit look. “That’s a word for it.”
“I know you said that you were cool with it, but I really don’t want you to feel uncomfortable in your own apartment. We don’t have to be here if you don’t—”
Emery held up her hand. “Bring it down a level, hooker. I don’t care that you’re together, and I don’t want you to have to go somewhere else.”
“But?” I prompted.
“But…I don’t know how long I can keep this from Jensen.”
Landon stuck his head in the bedroom. Thankfully, he’d shrugged back into his button-up and slacks. “Sorry, just happened to overhear.”
Emery rolled her eyes at him. “Yeah, because we’re so quiet.”
“Telling Jensen would be a really bad idea for Heidi at this point.”
Emery threw down the pair of shoes she’d been holding. “I’m going crazy over here. Secrets are a big thing between me and Jensen, and if he thinks I’m holding something back, then he’s going to get pissed. And, trust me, no one likes when that happens. Least of all, me.”
“Yeah, but if we tell Jensen, I could lose my job,” I said.
“Or we could figure something out!” Emery cried.
“I love my brother, but we all know he solves problems with a blunt instrument,” Landon said.
“What if we talked to Morgan?” Emery asked.
“Already did.”
“Fuck,” Emery groaned. “Okay, okay. I can figure this out, but if he shows up and y’all are together, I never knew!”
“Got it,” Landon agreed.
I nodded. “Thanks, Em.”
“You owe me,” Emery told me. “And you…you should be lucky it’s my best friend.”
Landon held his arms up. “We both appreciate it, Emery. Even if we don’t both deserve it.”
She nodded her head as Landon eased out of the bedroom.
“I have to get ready for work,” Emery said with a sigh. “Will you please be careful? I could have easily had Jensen with me, and we’d be having a much different conversation.”
“I’d like to avoid that conversation if at all possible.”
“Me, too,” she muttered. Emery’s eyes cut to mine again. “This is so weird. You’re sleeping with Landon Wright. Like…Landon Wright.”
“Yeah,” I said with a one-shoulder shrug. “Guess so.”
“And it’s the week of…and you seem okay.”
I swallowed hard. “I’m holding up. I told him last night…about everything.”
“Holy shit, Heidi. That’s huge. Y’all are really serious, aren’t you?”
I bit my lip and did a brisk nod. “I feel like it all happened so fast, yet…I’ve been waiting for this moment for so long. Just finding a guy who really gets me, you know?”
Emery looked down and grinned. “That, I do. And I’m also queen of realizing that it’s not always the guy you expected you’d fall for.”
“What is it with these Wright brothers?” I asked.
“If only I knew.”
“Seriously.”
“Falling for them only pads their egos,” Emery said.
I snort-laughed. “As if their egos need padding.”
“Yet we love them.”
“We do,” I agreed softly.
Emery laughed. “Okay, seriously, work. Go put some clothes on, you slob. You’re super naked.”
I tugged on the T-shirt I had on, suddenly remembering I’d never put on shorts. “Whatever. You like it, ho.”
“Oh, yeah, baby. Take it all off.”
I tugged at the bottom of my shirt, giving her a peek of my stomach. “Come and get it, lover.”
Emery winked at me before I disappeared around the corner.
I breathed a sigh of relief. I was the luckiest fucking person in the world to have a friend like her. It was no joke when I said tha
t she was the only family I had left. I worried more about what she thought than about losing my job at this point. I knew that she was putting on an act, too. She wasn’t a hundred percent comfortable with me and Landon, but she loved me and wanted me to be happy. I hoped that we could all figure out how to handle this over time.
“She okay?” Landon asked when I stepped back into my bedroom.
“I think she’s adjusting.”
“Yeah, welcome to the club.”
“You know what? Don’t use that tone with me about Emery. You were the one who ditched her on graduation day and left her in tattered pieces that I had to put back together for years, Landon.”
He held his hands up in defense. “Whoa. Okay. I didn’t mean to upset you like that. I meant that I had to adjust to her and Jensen. At least you told her about us before she walked in on us.”
“I know,” I said with a shake of my head. “I get defensive about Emery. You really hurt her, you know.”
He scratched the back of his head. “Yeah. Trust me, I carry around the guilt from it. I was mad about what had happened with my dad, that the last thing I’d ever said to him was that I chose Emery over him and that I would every time. When he died, I blamed myself, and I stupidly blamed Emery. I couldn’t even look at her or think about her or talk to her without that pain. So, yeah, I get that you want to protect her. I was a dick to push her away when I was grieving, but it was high school. I have apologized for how I acted. And what happened with me and Emery has absolutely nothing to do with what’s happening with me and you, Heidi.”
“That was what you said to your dad?” I asked softly.
“Uh…yeah,” he said, glancing off. “Did I never tell you that?”
“I…no. I knew you got into an argument about college.”
“Yeah, well, what I wouldn’t give to redo those days. But then I don’t know if I’d be standing right here, and I know this is where I’m supposed to be.”
I stepped into his arms, rested my head on his shoulder, and closed my eyes. This was where I was meant to be, too.
“We should probably get my car,” I whispered, tightening my grip on him.
“And get to work,” he agreed.
“But there’s a bed.”
His hands slipped down to my ass as he toed the door closed. “And this ass. Fuck.”