Still the One

by Jill Shalvis

  on the bed and coming down over the top of her.

  Eighteen

  AJ wasn’t surprised when Darcy rolled them both across the bed so that she was on top, braced above him on her arms, smiling triumphantly into his face. He wanted to yank her down and crush his mouth to hers, but she looked so sexy bending low to give him little nibbles here and there. Finally, when he couldn’t take it anymore, he fisted his hands in her hair and held her still.

  “Careful,” he said. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

  “I’m not hurting right now.”

  “Let’s keep it that way.”

  Breath warm against his face, she sighed, slowly rocking her hips against his, ripping a groan from him as he let her tease both herself and him. When her robe slipped open, giving him peekaboo hints of her gorgeous body, he swore roughly. “Kiss me.”

  Breathing labored but clearly pleased with herself, she flashed him a smile as her hands slid up his shoulders. One curled around the back of his neck to hold him to her as she slowly, finally, deepened the kiss, giving him her mouth.

  He let her dictate the pace for as long as he could take it, which wasn’t all that long. Needing her under him, naked, buck wild with his name on her lips, he took over, rolling them again, pinning her to the bed.

  “Hmm,” she said, sounding like she might be pleased.

  Entangling his hands in hers, he pulled them up over her head. “Wrap your legs around me.”

  “Feeling dominant?” she murmured, even as she did what he’d asked and wrapped her mile-long legs around his hips.

  He nipped her lower lip. “Feeling something,” he said, and kissed her hard, letting himself get more than a little lost in her. He’d never get over the shock of this, how fast she could wind him up and take him to a place he hadn’t been in a damned long time.

  If ever.

  When they were both breathless he lifted his mouth a fraction of an inch and stared down at her, assessing, making sure she wasn’t hurting, that she was still into this. One never knew with Darcy. She could be over it. She could be pissed off. She could be anything.

  Definitely she wasn’t hurting. Her eyes were glazed, her mouth slightly open as if she needed it that way just to drag air into her lungs.

  Just as aroused and shocked as he, he saw, and felt slightly mollified.

  Again he lowered his mouth to hers, wanting inside her, wanting a hell of a lot more than that, too. He wanted to possess her heart, body, and soul … Pretty fucking terrifying considering that she didn’t tend to do heart, body, and soul for anyone.

  “AJ.” That was it, just his name as she tore at the shirt he’d thrown on to chase her back to her room, pulling it out of where it had been half tucked into his sweatpants.

  Her hands were icy on his hot skin. “Cold?” he asked.

  “No.” She let out a low laugh. “Nervous.”

  And hell if that didn’t turn him on all the more. He smiled down at her. “Cute,” he said, using the same adjective she’d used for him.

  She snorted while her hands were very busy trying to get into his sweats. He liked where this was going, a lot. To help her get there, he pulled off his shirt and skimmed his hands down the front of her robe to jerk it open.

  “Damn,” he said. “You’re beautiful.”

  She flushed. It was the sweetest, hottest thing. “You’ve seen it all before. You—” She broke off on a shuddering moan when he lowered his mouth to a breast, and then again when he sucked on the tight tip, trapping it against his tongue.

  Beneath him she wriggled and panted. Music to his ears. Palming her thighs, he pressed them open and slid down until he was at eye level with heaven on earth.

  “AJ—” she choked out.

  “So beautiful,” he said, and slipped his hands beneath her, cupping her ass, holding her still for him.

  She cried out with the first stroke of his tongue, but he wouldn’t let her rush him, not now that he finally had her right as he’d been fantasizing about. He’d had a great time in those fantasies—and there’d been many—but not a single one compared to Darcy in the flesh. Taking his time, he gave her a taste of her own medicine, teasing her until it was her turn to swear at him. He licked and sucked while she writhed helplessly against his mouth.

  “Please,” she gasped. “Damn you, AJ, please.”

  “Aw. Since you asked so sweetly,” he said, and took her completely apart.

  When she finally stopped shuddering and quivering, she relaxed her hold on his hair with a low apologetic murmur. Eyes still closed, she sighed. “I came.”

  It was her tone of utter surprise that had him lifting his head to look at her.

  She took in his silence and opened her eyes. “Sorry,” she said. “Ignore me, I say the stupidest stuff in the aftermath.”

  “You say stupid stuff never,” he said. “You’ve never had an orgasm before?”

  Her face flamed. “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course I have.” She closed her eyes again. “Just not in a long time.”

  “How long?”

  “Since before my accident.” She kept her eyes closed. “Look, it’s no big deal. After the crash I felt like such shit for so long, and completely energyless. And then when I finally started to feel better, I … couldn’t.” She shrugged. “I tried, it just didn’t happen.”

  “Tried how?”

  She didn’t respond.

  “Darcy.”

  She blew out a breath. “I figured I’d take myself out for a test drive before I slept with anyone, okay? But I couldn’t rev my own engines. Figured that was that.”

  “Did you tell your doctor?” he asked.

  “No. And damn,” she said on a sigh. “Do you always talk this much during sex?” She reached between them and untied his sweats. Sliding her hand inside, she wrapped her fingers around him, hummed her pleasure, and then gave him a slow, eyes-rolling-in-the-back-of-his-head stroke.

  “Why are you still wearing clothes?” she asked, and nipped his chin.

  He hadn’t the foggiest. He moved to kick them off and she helped, using her feet, although mostly that just succeeded in tangling them up together. The sweats got caught on his running shoes. She got a leg cramp.

  She was laughing and he was swearing like a sailor when they finally were both naked.

  “Now,” she whispered, her hands skimming down his back to his ass.

  Yeah. They were on the same wavelength. And that’s when he remembered. “I don’t have a condom.”

  She stared at him for a beat, the wheels clearly turning. “Okay, we can work with this,” she said. “I’m on the pill to keep my cycle regular, and you … maybe just had a physical?”

  “Six months ago,” he said. “I’m clean.”

  “Well then, I trust you.”

  She trusted him. That was even better than having her sprawled naked beneath him.

  Darcy swallowed hard as AJ’s eyes raked down her body, sending sparks to her every single good spot, of which there were so many more than she remembered.

  She understood his need to look. She had the same need because with all that hard muscle and warm, tanned skin he was a visceral delight for the eyes. She could look all day.

  But he leaned in close, blocking her view, his mouth hovering over hers. When she traced his bottom lip with her tongue, she tasted herself.

  His lips curved in a sinful smile and she trembled. Only he could make her tremble with just one look. And that mouth. Good lord, that mouth.

  Putting it to her ear, he whispered, “You’re hot when you come. I’m going to make you do it again.” He sank his teeth lightly into her earlobe. “And then again.”

  She whimpered as his mouth bypassed her lips and skimmed her throat. Her eyes fluttered closed and she bit her bottom lip as the dark velvet sound of his voice reverberated through her, seducing her with ease. He was a man of few words, but he had a way of making the most of the ones he used, that was for sure. “So what’s taking you so long?”
she asked.

  He laughed low in his throat and the sound went through her like a sinful promise as he stroked his fingertips along her body, leaving a trail of fire in their wake that she felt all the way to her toes.

  “Look at me,” he said.

  She opened her eyes and looked into his, which were dark and heavy lidded with desire, and her stomach clenched as she caught something new as well. Need, for her. It was raw and unspoken, but as apparent as the beat of her own heart.

  His hands slid south and she felt the jolt of electricity as he teased her, rubbing himself between her legs until she whimpered again. “AJ.” She wrapped her legs around his waist, positioning him right where she needed him the most, and arched her back, shamelessly grinding her hips into his.

  He stilled her hips with his hands. “Wait for it.”

  “But I’m not good at waiting.”

  “No kidding.” Lowering his mouth to hers, he kissed her into a boneless, quivering mess as he slid home.

  He stilled, like maybe she was the best thing he’d felt in a long time. That was all she could take in because he began to move, pulling back and then slowly pushing in again, holding her captive with the delicious glide of his every thrust. Her toes were already curling when she moaned and pushed up with her hips, grinding into him for more, panting with need.

  “Killing me,” he murmured, his voice a sexy rasp.

  “But not a bad way to go though, right?” she managed. His laugh was rough and she took some pride in reducing him to speechlessness.

  When he moved again, he hooked his elbow beneath her knee, forcing it wide so he could go even deeper, and the laughter backed up in both their throats.

  “Tell me you’re still okay,” he rasped out.

  “More than,” she promised, and cried out as he took her right out of herself and splintered her into a million pieces.

  For the second time.

  She brought him along with her this time. When they were done and still breathing against each other like lunatics, his arms tight around her, his face pressed into her throat as if he couldn’t get enough of her scent, his hands slowly stroked her back together again.

  When Darcy managed to stir she had no idea how much time had gone by. “Wow,” she murmured, and tried to extract herself.

  He stroked a hand down her back and settled it on her ass, obstructing her escape. He didn’t speak but for some reason she really needed him to, if only to hear his voice and know by the tremor in it that he was even half as shaken as she.

  Because honestly, wow didn’t come close to a good enough exclamation for what they’d just done. Holy shit didn’t cover it, either.

  You’re screwed? Yeah, maybe that covered it.

  And still AJ said nothing.

  “I mean really wow,” she said, testing.

  More silence, and she came up on an elbow to look into his face, finding him smiling smugly. “What?” she demanded.

  “I thought maybe you were going to try to tell me that was pretend, too.”

  She narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to blast him, but he easily tucked her beneath him and slid back inside of her.

  She gasped, quivered, and clutched at him, already halfway to her next orgasm. “God.”

  “Nope, just me.”

  Nineteen

  AJ opened his eyes when Darcy slipped out of his arms and vanished into the bathroom. The clock’s blue glow said two oh five a.m. At two oh six he heard the shower come on.

  Maybe he should go in there. He was most excellent in the shower. Before he could move there came the click of the bathroom door lock sliding into place.

  Nope. She didn’t want company.

  He blew out a sigh and stared up at the ceiling. He had no idea how things were supposed to go back to normal now that he knew how she kissed, knew the sexy little sounds she made when she came.

  They’d fit together like she’d been made for him, and he also wasn’t sure how this one night was going to be enough, not when he was already thinking of having her back in his arms, her mouth hot on his again, her body writhing beneath him, all warm, soft curves.

  And no matter what she was in that shower telling herself, he hadn’t been alone in this. There’d been gut-churning need in her eyes, in the way she’d clutched at him, in her voice when she’d cried out his name.

  She’d been just as blown away by this as he was.

  He’d known the lust was there between them, but there was something more too, something beyond the desire.

  But damn. If he was falling in love with her, he didn’t want to know it. After Kayla he’d decided it would be a cold day in hell before he went there again, down the road of demoralizing devastation.

  The shower was still on. She was probably in there turning to a prune, overthinking everything. Hell, maybe she was plotting out her escape.

  He should save her the effort and give her some space, though he felt reluctant to leave her alone with the storm still raging on.

  He’d leave it up to her, but he got up and pulled on his clothes just in case. He was tying his shoes when the bathroom door finally opened.

  Steam emerged first.

  And then Darcy, wrapped in a towel that was tucked between her breasts and barely covered the very tops of her thighs.

  His mouth watered, which was ridiculous. He’d just had her, every single inch of her, and while it had been … amazing, it should’ve satisfied his hunger for her.

  It hadn’t.

  Her wet hair was loose, dripping from the ends, down her shoulders and chest.

  Her expression was unreadable, her body language achingly unsure.

  “You leaving?” she asked.

  “Whatever you want.”

  She paused and he got the feeling she was battling with some inner demon. “What I want is to not sleep alone,” she said, and glanced at the window. “Not tonight.”

  His heart tightened at the admission that had undoubtedly cost her.

  “The wind gives me bad dreams,” she said quietly.

  Ah, hell. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said.

  “I don’t normally think about the night of the accident, but this weekend …” She drifted off but he knew.

  This weekend she’d thought of it plenty. She’d had to, thanks to him bringing her here. With a low sound of regret, he moved back to the bed. “Come on.”

  She hesitated and then came close.

  He kicked off his shoes and then tugged his shirt back off over his head. He slipped it over hers and then reached beneath to slip off her towel. He nudged her onto the bed and beneath the covers, and slid in after her.

  “You just tucked me in,” she murmured sleepily.

  “Tell anyone and die. Do we need to talk about it, Darcy?”