CHEAT (Right Men Series Book 3)

by Mayra Statham

  “We can talk after,” I muttered back, my hands stroking the length of his shoulders then back to his neck. Whatever he wanted to talk about couldn’t be bad if he was touching me back, right?

  “Stef.”

  “Please. I need you,” I whispered and gasped at the feel of his hands tangling in my hair.

  “You’re my weakness, sunshine.” He lifted us up easily, reminding me of his strength. It made me kiss him back harder. “You’re like a drug, my favorite addiction.” My legs tightened around his waist.

  “Is that bad?” I gasped, feeling the edge of his hardness against my sex. Pinning me against the wall much like our first times in the hotel, he took me.

  He kissed me until we were both nothing but a ball of need and hunger. Our clothes fell off in a flurry of fast-moving hands and heavy breathing.

  Something overcame me, and I made him put me down and led him to a chair next to the bed. I was desperate. Desperate to show him everything I felt for him. That nothing could push me away. That if he wanted, we could have this. I’d be by his side through the good and the bad.

  “What are you doing, baby?”

  “Shh…” I whispered against his bare collarbone.

  Damn. My man’s chest was sexy. Fanning my lips lightly over his skin, I felt his body tense.

  “Do you know how flipping sexy you are?” I complimented and didn’t miss his blush beneath his closely trimmed beard.

  “Stef, what are you—” I glanced up as he was talking and was hypnotized by the way his Adam’s apple bobbed. I smiled.

  “You’re wearing too much.” He might have only been in boxer briefs, and I was naked as the day I was born, but too much was covering the part of him I craved.

  My hands lightly scraped down his chiseled chest, the dark coarse hair tickling my palm as I reached for the waistband of his boxer briefs and pulled them down as I kneeled in front of him. My hands stroked up and down his thighs and calves.

  “Fuck, sunshine,” he growled, his nose flaring. I smiled up at him.

  “So much strength.” I kissed the front of his left thigh, then moved to kiss the right one, ignoring the bobbing appendage in front of me, cupping his balls gently in my hands, not missing the sharp hiss from between his lips.

  I glanced up, and our eyes connected. Without another word, I brought my tongue out and licked him from base to tip, swirling around his leaking tip and back down.

  “Mmm,” I moaned against the base of his shaft. “I love the way you taste.”

  “Fuck,” he cursed through his clenched jaw.

  “Do you like when I taste you?” I teased, licking my way up slowly, making sure to follow the vein of his cock and give it attention before reaching the head and bringing him into my mouth.

  His loud growl made my thighs clench. I loved the noises he made when he was lost in the moment. I held his balls and bobbed slowly up and down his length, letting the wetness of my mouth coat and lubricate him. There was something about worshipping him that was a complete turn-on. I might have been the one on her knees, with his dick in my mouth as I brought him toe-curling pleasure, but there was no doubt in my mind that I was the one in control.

  Sucking him deep, hallowing my cheeks, I let him go with a pop. “Sit down, baby,” I pleaded in a soft, raspy voice, and he did. I moved, settling between his muscular thighs, his thick dick standing at attention, hard and shiny from having been in my mouth. I stroked him as I licked slowly. Teasing him. Making his body even tenser and me drunk on lust.

  “Do you like that, soldier? Am I taking care of you, baby?” I flirted, trying my hand at being the dirt talk initiator. His head fell back, but even so, he couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off me.

  “What are you doing, Stef?” he gritted, and I wickedly grinned.

  “What do you mean, baby?” I asked, feigning innocence as my grip around his dick tightened and I spit on the tip. “Don’t you like me taking care of you?” I smirked. “You like when I take you nice and slow, don’t you, Garrett?” I opened my mouth and hesitated when he took over the reins of the moment.

  “You know exactly what I mean, baby. Be a good girl and put me in your mouth.” Damn, he was so much better at this than me! I opened my mouth and took as much of him as I could. In and out. Slowly at first, smiling around his thickness when he growled.

  “Quit playing, or I’ll punish that sweet ass of yours later.”

  “Mmm,” I moaned around him, letting him slip from between my lips. “Promises, promises,” I teased as I licked and stroked him.

  “Suck my dick, sunshine. Put me back in your pretty little mouth.”

  “Show me how.”

  “Stef.”

  “You won’t hurt me.”

  “I’m on edge. I might—”

  “Get rough?” I interrupted. The idea of him losing control only made me ache, but I could see the war waging within him. “I want to. Please?” I didn’t know what tsunami of desire washed over me, but it was something fierce. I wanted to please him on my knees as he took what he wanted, exactly the way he needed.

  “Damn it, Stef.” I could see he wanted what I was offering. The trust I was handing him of taking what he needed without hurting me.

  “You won’t hurt me,” I gently repeated, and he swallowed hard, but I saw the moment he made his decision.

  Taking my hair in his hand at the base of my head like a ponytail, he leaned forward and cupped my face with his free hand. “Tap on the back of my calves when you want me to stop.”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m serous, Stefanie.”

  “I promise,” I whispered, and he leaned back, moving me forward. “Lick me. Get my shaft nice and wet, sunshine.” And just like that, we were back to playing.

  I followed his directions. The control might have shifted, but the power still coursed through me. He pulled me away. The slight sting of my hair being pulled only added to the ache between my thighs.

  “Open,” he grunted his instructions, and before my heart could skip a beat, he was filling my mouth. Slowly, he worked as much of him I could take, pushing me slowly to take more and more of him. It made me feel drunk. Drunk on lust and passion as it mixed with the relief of not losing him. He was here with me. We’d had a setback, but we were moving forward. This was us starting over, and I couldn’t help but give more by taking more.

  It was sloppy and wet. My eyes teared up, but my hands stayed on his knees. Never moving toward his calves to silently plead with him to stop. If anything, I whined when he pulled me back.

  “Stand!” he barked, and I did.

  Getting on my feet, I watched his body slide lower on the chair, his ass at the edge and his finger crooking at me, a sexy little smirk on his face.

  “Ride me, sunshine. Light up for me,” he grunted. My nipples only stiffened harder.

  With a lick to my lips, I straddled him, my legs wide open as I sank down. There was no foreplay or grace. I was too hungry for him. The sting of his cock stretching me made my mouth run dry. My eyes closed, and my head tipped back. Not too far because he was right there, holding the back of my head as our mutual groans filled the room.

  “Fuck, Stef, you okay?” His hand bit into my hip.

  “Mhmm,” I breathed through my pressed lips as I opened my eyes and righted my body, my hands on his chest. He moved one over his heart, and I got lost further down the rabbit hole that was everything Garrett Wright.

  “Garrett, baby…” I whispered, needing him to take over but unable to summon the words. But I didn’t need words with him. We were connected in such a way I knew he’d know. He would always give me what I needed, and because of his generous, selfless heart, it would always be more.

  He sat up and pulled me closer. He stood, taking us both to the bed, where he gently laid me down, our bodies never disconnecting as my hands held on to the back of his head. Gone was the dirty girl. I needed the closeness I had only ever felt with him.

  “More,” I breathed, and more h
e gave.

  Thrust after thrust, we clung to one another. Seconds turned to minutes, and minutes turned into specks of stardust. I didn’t want the moment to end. I didn’t want to lose the feel of his body wrapped around mine.

  But nothing lasts forever.

  Just as he growled, filling me with the hot ribbons of his release, I fell over the edge. A silent tremor coursed through my body as I clenched around him and prayed he would never let me go.

  I held on after his body gave out and the weight of him fell on top of me as he fought for breath.

  I held on tighter trying to bat away the tingle fear that tried to creep in.

  “I love you,” I whispered into his ear. “I love you so much, Garrett.” My fingers tightened around the back of his hair as I gulped for oxygen to fill my own lungs.

  His face lifted from my neck. He peppered kisses over my jaw down to my collarbone and above my breast. I knew he could feel my heart beating for him and only him at that moment.

  He moved up toward my neck, his nose nuzzling the sensitive skin under the charm.

  “You’re wearing it,” he acknowledged almost as if he were talking to himself, but I wasn’t going to let him go into his head. I needed him to know I was here, and I was his. So, I found the courage to move my hands from the back of his head, so I could cup his handsome face.

  “I never took it off.”

  “I’m here.” He kissed the skin over my heart again, and I nodded. “I don’t deserve it,” he spoke out loud, and I made the very conscious decision to ignore it. Kissing his lips, I smiled at him as he moved, shifting us so he could spoon me. His long, strong body behind me, shielding me from anything that could hurt me.

  “Sleep, Stef,” he whispered in my ear, pulling the sheets over us and keeping me close as he tangled his legs with mine.

  “I love it when you do that,” I shared. I needed him to know. To know everything and anything I felt just in case there was any way, any possibility I had read the situation wrong and he was actually saying goodbye.

  Chapter Twenty

  Garrett

  He had been scared to sleep a wink, so he didn’t try. He wasn’t going to risk missing a single moment. He couldn’t. Not when it came to his girl.

  In the silence of the room he watched her sleep. He watched and memorized every little thing he could. The way her hair got in her face and somehow added an allure to her. The way she shifted and even in sleep reached for him, and how he was more than happy to hold her as his heart steadily beat away under her ear. The silky feel of her hair between his fingers as he stroked it, very well knowing the heavy cross he was carrying. She was safe and sound in his arms, yet she wasn’t. He wasn’t stable, and he couldn’t promise to have a hold of the shit that swirled in his head. He’d known that, and he’d still taken her.

  Garrett knew he’d fucked up.

  Big.

  She was too fucking sweet and seductive for her own good. He had been too weak to resist her. To tell her he was leaving.

  He’d seriously messed up.

  He’d been weak and unable to stop her when she’d offered everything she did. Too cowardly to stop her when he’d ordered her to straddle him. He’d needed to have her. To possess her. One last time. He’d been ravenous for her, and she had done what she always did.

  Give and give and give.

  She turned, her eyes bright on him, her smile shining so much fucking light he almost swore he needed sunglasses. He was head over ass in love with her, but he couldn’t do this. He couldn’t keep her.

  “I have to leave,” he mumbled roughly, hating himself as the last word slipped out of his mouth, his heart beating at double speed.

  Her smile faltered, and it was like a car accident happening in front of him. He didn’t have the balls to turn away or do anything to stop it. He took every shard of pain showing in her gaze and let it bleed him out. Before he knew it, she sat up and away from him, his hands immediately missing the way she’d felt.

  She turned. Her flawless back stretched as she sat ramrod straight. Shutting him out, not letting him watch. He felt like air couldn’t physically fill his lungs.

  “I know.” She didn’t turn to look at him. Everything in his body yelled to touch her.

  Hold her.

  But he didn’t.

  Instead, he stood there like a sack of coal.

  Lifeless.

  Heartless.

  Soulless.

  “I was going to tell you,” he lied. Shit. Fuck!

  He wished it were true. He had wanted to tell her about Marty’s offer the second he’d hung up with his buddy. Instead, he’d moved his ass and packed the last of his things in Marc’s big house and drove his ass to Big Bear. Garrett had been there as he had looked over the contracts. He’d be gone for sixteen weeks if he signed them. Which he hadn’t. He had to see her before he did, so waking up today, he’d been done putting it off and had shot her a text to meet him at the hotel.

  “No, you weren’t.” Her eyes met his, and he hated what he saw staring back at him.

  Defeated sadness and pain. Pain he had put there because he had been too damn selfish and arrogant to stay away from her. He should have been prepared for her to call him on his lie.

  “Stef…” He didn’t finish saying her name, choking on the last syllable as he caught sight of the lone tear rolling down her face.

  One she quickly wiped away.

  One he wished he’d been able to wipe away, or better yet, never have put there in the first place.

  “You have to go. You should go,” her voice rasped. She turned from him and picked up her cute denim skirt from the floor.

  It was the same one she’d been wearing the night he’d seen her singing horribly on that damn karaoke night. The same skirt she’d worn the night she’d stolen the small piece of his heart that had still existed, and somehow with her light, had made grow.

  “Stefanie, I have to—” She looked at him, and the words died off in his throat.

  “You want to. This is your choice. This isn’t a debate, so don’t try to sell it like I have any say in what you have to do.”

  “You don’t understand,” he rasped.

  “I do. Just know this is it. No more, Garrett. No more of this going back and forth. You have to do whatever you have to do. Great, solider boy. Awesome.” She gave him two thumbs up and a stone-cold gaze. “But I’m over this. I’m done. Don’t come back,” she seethed, and he couldn’t blame her. “You are nothing but a liar,” she announced. “Two-way street.” She humorlessly shook her head. “Do you even know the meaning of what that is?” He opened his mouth, but the daggers she threw in his direction made him stay silent.

  He watched her get dressed in silence. She was obviously done talking to him.

  He soaked in the bitterness of the quiet, intimate moment. She sat on the bed next to him to zip up the ankle boots she’d been wearing and ran a hand over her shoulder-length reddish-brown hair.

  He moved his head toward her, unsure of what to say, but like every time he caught sight of her, she left him speechless. She was so fucking beautiful it hurt to look at her. But it was the kind of pain he didn’t mind. It was the kind that left you feeling warm and comforted like the first sunny day after a snowstorm.

  He shifted to sitting next to her, but she didn’t move. Then again, she wasn’t the one pushing him away. Instead, she stoically looked ahead, lost in her own thoughts. Fuck, he wanted to know what was running through her mind. He could only see her profile but felt her hand move next to his on the hotel sheets. Her delicate pinky brushed up against his, and he hooked his with hers. He took it as a good sign, but he was still hesitant since she hadn’t turned to look at him.

  “I—”

  “Don’t,” she clipped, a tinge of pink covering her cheekbones. “I know you think I’m young and sweet and naive and obviously stupid…”

  “I don’t—” he tried to interrupt, but the way her eyes flared made him shut his trap im
mediately.

  “You do,” she scoffed. “I might be with certain things,” she sighed, then went in for the kill. “But never with you.” Stefanie turned to look at him, and his heart hurt in a way he’d never experienced, not once in his thirty-eight years of life.

  Not even in the aftermath of having seen his best friend die in his arms overseas.

  “I knew this was only a matter of time,” she put out there, and fuck, he wanted to argue with her. “But you fought that. You kept wanting more and more of me—”

  “Sunshine—” he strangled out, but any thought of any other words coming out stopped in the middle of his throat when their eyes connected.

  Fuck, what did I do?

  “You pushed and pushed. You got me. And for what? So, the first time there’s a hiccup—”

  “It was more than a fucking hiccup, and you know it!” he hissed, but his girl didn’t shy away. Fire ignited behind her tawny eyes.

  “It was a nightmare!”

  “You don’t know shit,” he hissed, turning his body away from her.

  Every damn molecule of his being was straining for him to reach for her.

  To hold her.

  To take back his decision.

  “I guess I don’t,” she softly answered. “I was just stupid enough to fool myself into believing things that were not there.”

  “That’s not…” He didn’t finish his sentence as he turned because of the steely determination he saw on her face.

  Determination and the balls to do what she had to do. He admired her. Jesus, do I ever. The way she lived life to the fullest despite the shit she’d seen. She never let it get to her. He wished he had the balls she did when life got tough. She faced everything head on, jumping right in without a second thought. He’d seen it over and over the last couple of months.

  “You said this was a two-way street,” she whispered. Something ugly seeped into his blood. “You said I was safe with you.” He stilled. He had. He had said those exact things. “You said you were stuck with me. You even promised, Garrett.”