by Lisa Suzanne
It’s decision time.
We walk down the hall casually, but each step closer to our neighboring rooms pulses another beat of indecision through me.
And then we’re standing outside his door. I move to go toward mine, but his hand on my forearm stops me. It’s gentle, and it’s warm.
“It’s early still. We can watch a movie, or just hang out. It doesn’t have to go beyond that.”
I press my lips together.
If I go in there with him, if this goes beyond that one blazing kiss we shared on Santa Monica Pier today, it’s just going to make it that much harder when the time comes where we have to say goodbye.
But indecision never built anything great.
Neither did living with regrets.
And I know I’ll regret it if I don’t take this chance.
I finally nod. “Let’s do it.”
He raises a brow at my choice of words, flashes a smirk at me, and opens the door.
His room looks exactly like mine, just flipped—and without make-up and hair products dotting random surfaces.
I walk over to the windows and look out at the same view I have, and in the reflection of the glass, I spot Gage heading straight toward me.
He stops by my side, and we look out there together.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” he asks.
I nod and murmur a sound of agreement. “I never thought I’d really be here,” I say. I realize I’m almost letting slip the real reason why I’m here in Los Angeles, but I don’t just mean here as in California. I mean here in this place where by the end of the weekend, I’ll be battling it out for a place in a huge rock band.
“Why not?” he asks, and he bumps my shoulder with his.
I shrug and pretend like I meant California. “The farthest west I’ve been is Denver. I’ve just always wanted to visit.”
“You need to come to Vegas sometime,” he says.
“Why’s that?” I turn toward him and tilt my head.
“The strip clubs are phenomenal.”
I giggle and reach over to smack him in the chest with the back of my hand. He laughs.
“Can I get you anything? We could call room service and get some more margaritas.” He raises a brow.
“Probably not a good idea.” Or maybe the best idea I’ve ever heard. It might cut the nerves I’m feeling.
And then I realize...I have no reason to be nervous.
He wants this. He’s made that clear all day.
So maybe that feeling in the pit of my stomach isn’t nerves about what’s about to happen between us. Maybe it has more to do with the fact that I’m already in over my head. I already have feelings for him. I’m not going to want to let him go once this weekend is over.
“Why not?” he asks, and his voice is a little huskier than before.
“Well,” I say, turning in toward him and closing the gap between our bodies. I lace my arms around his waist. “If we order room service, then we’ll just be waiting around for them to deliver stuff, and then they’d be interrupting us.”
He wraps his arms around me, too. “From what?” he asks, his voice pure gravel as his eyes burn down into mine.
“From this,” I say, and I tilt my head back, push to my tiptoes, and press my mouth to his.
He groans into me, his big hands moving to my hips as he clutches me close. He pulls me against him, and I feel the hardness in his pants and the heat of his body. His tongue presses into my mouth, and then his hands move to my butt, where he tugs and lifts me until my feet are off the ground. I wrap my legs around him, and he carries me over to the bed.
Once we’re lying on the bed, I trail my fingers down his waist, where I feel the hard muscles I saw there this morning. I want to find purchase there, to take my time, to luxuriate in them, but the ache and need and desire roll together to push my hand down.
I toy with his belt buckle for a beat before I run my hand along him outside his jeans.
He’s lengthy.
He’s thick.
I knew that from the flash I saw this morning.
He’s hard.
Oh my God, is he hard. I rub my hand back and forth over him, and he thrusts toward me, like he’s trying to have sex with my hand. He grunts and growls appreciatively, and then he reaches his hand up under my shirt. His fingers trace lazily along my skin until he hits the bottom of my bra, and my hips thrust of their own accord toward him.
I need some friction.
I’m freaking dying over here.
He chuckles as my pace rubbing him over his jeans increases, like he knows what I need and he wants to tease me. He reaches under my shirt for my breast. He pulls at my bra cup until one of my boobs spills over, and then he thumbs my nipple, and the already searing ache between my legs somehow intensifies.
He brushes his thumb gently back and forth, and all I can think is that I wish it was his mouth and not his thumb, and so I decide to just do something about it. I move my hand from his jeans, shift a little, and shimmy out of my shirt. I unhook my bra and set it aside.
He stares appreciatively and hungrily down at my body, naked from the waist up.
“So gorgeous,” he whispers, and then he shifts so he’s over the top of me. I move my hands back down between us, and this time I unhook his belt while he kisses me. He trails wet kisses down my neck, down to the valley between my breasts, and then over until he sucks a nipple into his mouth.
I groan, my hips bucking up again, and even though I can hardly think straight, I keep doing what I’m doing. I get the belt undone and go for the button. I inch down the zipper.
And then I reach in with both hands. I use one to hold him at his base, and I pull him out over the top of his boxers and stroke him. His grasp on my nipple tightens as he gives into the pleasure.
I jut my chest up toward him, like I can’t get enough of being in his mouth while I give him a hand job. He reaches down, bypassing my button and zipper, and slides his hand right into my panties before he rubs my clit for a beat.
“Ahh,” I cry out, because what he’s doing to my body...well, I’m about at my limit of what I can take before I explode with need.
He dips his finger down inside me, and my hips move to ride his hand. He shoves his hips toward me, too, and I start to crack when he pulls his finger out and rubs it over my clit again.
My moans get louder, hitting toward the crescendo just as my body starts its freefall into bliss. I keep stroking him, the pressure of my hand increasing as my entire body tightens just before I spiral over the edge.
I groan my way through it, sparks dotting my vision and pleasure surrounding me like a blanket. I want to stop, and I want to lie in bliss for a second, but I don’t.
Because I want him lying in bliss alongside me. I want to share that moment of intimacy that only comes when you’ve hit a climax with someone you care about.
Someone you care about.
We’ve only spent one day together, and I realize how very much I already care about him.
He finishes, and we lie together for a few quiet moments before I head to the bathroom because I need a second to think.
I like Gage. A lot. He makes my tummy do flips, and the way his eyes crinkle when he smiles somehow makes my heart skip a beat every time, and I wish we had more time together.
I feel the expiration date looming over us.
My only option is to take advantage of the time we do have, push away the connection between us because it doesn’t matter, and enjoy every moment.
And then I’ll get my head in the game for the competition that lies ahead.
CHAPTER 16: LEXI
I stay the night in his room. We have a pillow fight and we talk about what we want out of life and we fall asleep watching a movie.
I sleep in my t-shirt and a pair of his running shorts, and he holds me in his arms while we sleep. When I wake up in the morning, I realize what a mistake that was.
Feelings I promised myself I’d keep at bay begin to cree
p into my chest.
Emotions strike me like a sledgehammer.
I sit up, and he stirs when he feels the void of having me in his arms.
“Morning,” he says, his voice hoarse and sexy. He turns onto his back with the sheet still covering him, and he stretches.
“Good morning,” I say, and oh my God this is so awkward.
I pull his shorts off and grab my jeans.
“Where are you going?” he asks.
“Back to my room.” I sit on the edge of the bed to put my shoes back on.
He reaches toward me. “You don’t have to,” he says softly. His fingers skim along my back.
“I know,” I say. “But I should shower and change. I have a few things to take care of.”
We meet for breakfast an hour later, and once we’re done, we head back to his room.
Mostly because the sexual tension between us is nearly unbearable. We danced around it while we had pancakes, and once we were fueled up, we both knew what was happening next.
It’s mere seconds before I’m pinned beneath him on his bed.
He slams his hips to mine. “Is this what you want, Lexi?” he asks. His voice is low and dangerous.
“Yes.” My voice is some hoarse combination of whispering and moaning. “I want this. I want you.”
He reaches down, completely bypassing my jeans and panties like some sex expert just like last night, and he shoves a finger right into me.
“Ahh,” I groan, as he pulls that one back and adds a second one.
“How’s that?” he asks.
“Oh, God, so good,” I say.
“Your cunt is soaked,” he murmurs, his words low as they tickle close to my ear. “Just like when I felt it last night.”
I want to reach for him so I can pleasure him while he does this to me, but what he’s doing feels so dang good that I’m rendered incapacitated. All I can do is clutch his shoulders as I ride his hand.
He shoves his hand up, his fingers all the way inside me. I moan. “Mm,” he murmurs. “I wonder how you taste. I wonder how it feels to shove my cock in this tight pussy.”
He’s talking dirty, and I have to be honest...I’ve never been with a dirty talker. I don’t know what to say. I feel silly.
But hearing him say those things while he’s touching me the way he is...well, it’s freaking hot.
“Tell me how you like it,” he says softly, pulling his fingers back.
“I like what you’re doing right now,” I say, closing my eyes. My voice is a little tentative as I try to think through the words.
“What do you like about it?” He shoves his fingers into me again, hard, and I think I see stars.
“That,” I murmur. I still feel ridiculous saying it.
“Look at me, Lex.” I open my eyes, and he’s close, his dark eyes hot on mine. “Let go, Nashville. It’s just you and me. Don’t think about it, just tell me what you want, or how you like it, or just say what you’re feeling.”
I think I’m falling in love with you.
“I feel like I want you inside me,” I pant as he keeps his finger moving at a steady pace. My body starts to bend. The familiar white dots start to pepper my vision as pure pleasure takes over. “I feel like if your fingers feel this good, I want to know what the rest of you feels like.”
“Fuck,” he growls, and then he pulls his hand out of my jeans and stands, leaving me hanging. “You’re so damn sexy and you don’t even know it.”
He moves over toward his duffel bag and fishes around in there.
As a contrast to the rough way he just handled me, he slowly moves back toward me, gently pulls my shirt over my head, and then he unhooks my bra and pulls it off, tossing it to the floor.
He pulls his shirt off next, and my greedy hands move for that gorgeous abdomen of his. I run my fingertips along the muscles, counting them off one by one, and a surprising shudder runs through him at my touch.
He unbuckles his belt and pops the button of his jeans before lowering them to the ground along with his boxers, and then he’s naked. I get up and pull my jeans and panties down, too, and then we just stand there for a quiet beat looking at one another, drinking the other in.
We may have gotten handsy last night, but we didn’t see each other naked.
It should be awkward. My brain tells me it should be.
But it’s just...not.
I sit while he rolls on the condom he grabbed from the duffel bag, and then he moves over me, hovering there for a few beats. My stomach flips with anticipation. My heart races. My thighs clench.
And then he grabs himself and guides his way into me.
My body stretches for his big size, but I’m so wet for him that he glides easily in and out of me, like our bodies were made for one another. If I thought his fingers felt good, well, they had nothing on this. And it isn’t just the physical feeling—it’s the emotional connection we’ve built in the last day and a half. It’s the desire rippling between us but also the way he makes me tingle with nervous butterflies.
He thrusts against me, and he pinches and twists my nipples as he hammers away at me and whispers naughty things into my ear about how good I feel and how wet I am and how he’s been wanting this since he first saw me, and all it does is make the ache grow stronger both between my legs and in my chest.
It’s all the sensations together that push me toward my release, and I’m just about to let go and freefall when it all stops.
I give him a dirty look, but he just he laughs and says, “Sorry, babe. I was about to come.”
“So was I,” I mutter.
“I wasn’t ready to be done with you yet,” he says softly, and his words are riddled with double meaning.
He stands and helps me to my feet, and then he sits on the edge of the bed. He pulls me toward him. “Sit on me,” he instructs, and he guides himself back into me once I’m in position.
I bounce over the top of him, using his shoulders to help steady myself, and his hands hold my butt. Having Gage be the one to hold me and guide me, listening to his dirty words as he compliments me and my body and the way we’re moving together...it feels good. It feels right.
And it’s with those thoughts and feelings and words that I let go.
I fall over the edge, my body spiraling and unwinding as I shudder through an epic release unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. I don’t even realize I’m yelling through it incoherently. Something about God and Gage and maybe how he’s a God...I don’t know.
Just as my bliss starts to wane and coherence finds its way back to me, he falls into his own release. He grunts as he holds onto my shoulders to keep me locked in position, and then he lets out a string of curses as he comes. “Fuck yes, Lexi, oh fuck, Jesus yes, yes, fuck.”
And then it’s all over. He lifts me off and sets me gently on the bed before collapsing backward. We lie together in bliss, panting as we try to catch our breath from what I can only describe as the best sex of my life.
Maybe it was because I let go, or it might have been because I wasn’t all up in my head about what it means, or perhaps it’s because this is just a fling.
Whatever the case, though, even though I’m happier and more sated than I’ve ever been before, that last thought seems to break my heart.
CHAPTER 17: GAGE
I’ve had a few flings in my day. More than a couple handfuls of one-night stands.
And this girl is the best lay of my life.
I push away the thought that it could be because what I feel for her is so intense.
You can’t fall for someone you’ve only known two days.
And yet...
I think I am.
I chalk it up to the excitement over the competition starting tomorrow. The nerves starting to work their way through are only alleviated when I’m inside her.
We have another pillow fight that ends with me giving her an orgasm with my mouth. We watch a movie and she blows me like it’s her fucking profession. We take a shower.
We eat dinner in the room.
We eat dessert off each other.
And then it’s late, and even though I want to be well-rested for what’s coming tomorrow, I’m not ready for this to end with her.
The thought that daylight is only a few hours off as I fuck her again, this time up against the windows, pulses a deep ache in my chest.
I already miss her, and she’s not even gone yet.
We could exchange numbers...but why?
We haven’t done it so far because we haven’t needed to. In fact, I’m usually glued to my phone. The only times I’ve taken it out this weekend have been to get on apps to arrange rides to the places we want to go.
That’s it.
This is maybe the first weekend of my life where I’ve ignored everything for a woman.
No woman has ever held my attention long enough to give her that. Lexi has, though. She’s different. She’s sweet, innocent, vulnerable...and at the same time, she’s a fucking wildcat.
I’ve never heard her utter so much as a curse word, yet the things she says when I’m talking dirty to her send me to another dimension.
We fall asleep, maybe by accident or maybe because we’re both so physically spent after our day together. And when we wake, the sun is up and our time together is nearly over.
I glance at the clock.
Fuck.
Our time is over.
We slept a little too long, and Tony said he’d be picking me up at nine.
It’s eight-thirty.
I have enough time to take a shower and to grab something to go for breakfast.
We don’t even have enough minutes for one more round.
You never really know it’s going to be the last one until you look back on it and see that it was. I got to have her up against the windows, and that was it. I thought we had another in us, but we don’t.
I don’t know how to say goodbye to her. I study her for a beat, because even though a guy is coming to pick me up to take me to a house so I can compete to be the new bassist for MFB, I still need a few more seconds with her.
I’m excited for what’s ahead...but I’m devastated for what I’m leaving behind. My chest aches with the sort of pain I’ve never felt over a woman before.