Center of Gravity

by K. K. Allen

  I sat back on his bed and glanced around. French doors looked out over the pool, and a set of chairs decorated the corner of the room in front of the brick fireplace. Every bit of his room, from the plain navy comforter to the LA art on the mantel, screamed its need for a woman’s touch.

  “You are such the bachelor, aren’t you?” My eyes swung toward him and caught on his naked form approaching, his length heavy in his hand. My heart started as I glanced behind him to see his crumpled sweats on the floor and an unwrapped condom in his other hand.

  “C’mere.” He sat on the bed beside me and took my hand, placing it on his cock. He used his fingers to wrap mine around him then squeezed as he groaned in the air. “That’s better. I don’t really want to talk about my poor decorating skills right now.” He guided my hand in long strokes, squeezing himself with my fingers.

  “Then what do you want to talk about?” I bit down on my lip, trying to contain my smile.

  His lips brushed up my neck and landed on my ear, the effects rippling over my skin. “I want to talk about how loud you’re going to scream, because I’m pretty sure you were trying to set a record downstairs. I haven’t even gotten started with you, Lex.”

  He stopped moving my hand and turned to push me down on the bed until he was hovering above me, his knees between my legs.

  My laughter was weak, filled with embarrassment. “It wasn’t that loud.”

  He grinned as he lowered himself, his warm skin crushing mine. “Don’t get all shy on me now.” He kissed my nose. “You’re a screamer. I can handle that.”

  I placed my hands on his chest and pushed him away teasingly, but he brought himself back down with his strength and kissed me, this time on the cheek.

  I melted beneath him, happily submitting to it all. His touch, his words, his lips. Theo Noska was not supposed to be sweet. He was supposed to be an asshole who was easy to stay away from. How had he crawled so deeply under my skin and awakened something within me—something dark but beautiful too?

  I watched in fascination as he sat up, his knees wedged between my thighs, his length hard and in his hands. My heart beat faster as he rolled the condom on, the sheer material covering him completely. But I could still see every strained inch.

  “Does that hurt?” The moment the question slipped out, I wanted to take it back. The fact that I was a virgin shouldn’t matter to him, but it didn’t feel right to announce it right then. Whatever was going to happen between us, I wanted it to happen naturally.

  He eyed me strangely before letting out a breathy laugh. “Not as much as it hurts to not be inside you.”

  There was a moment of quiet as he brought himself down and held his weight on his elbows. He dipped down to kiss me, this time slowly, as if savoring every second. I feared that too. I feared the depth of my feelings for a man who couldn’t be mine.

  When his fingers moved between my legs, his breath skated over my chest. “Your heart is beating so fast.” He pressed his ear against it then glanced up, meeting my eyes. “Are you okay?”

  He was worried. So was I. Not for what was about to happen but for what could potentially change when it was all over.

  “I’m okay.”

  “Nervous?” His tone was intense and indicated he’d put a stop to the whole thing if I even remotely doubted being with him. “Tell me the truth, Lex.”

  “I am a little. Aren’t you?”

  “Fucking terrified.” He kissed the spot between my breasts before peering back up through my lashes. “I want you more than anything, but I don’t know what happens tomorrow or next week or next month. I can’t make any promises. I don’t want to hurt you. That seems like something I’m pretty good at.”

  I hated his words—how honest they were, how little hope he saw in our future. In himself. But I wanted him, anyway. I wanted him to be my first, no matter what the consequences might be. “I’m okay with the not knowing if you are.” I reached a hand to his cheek and swallowed. “Now stop stalling and make me scream.”

  His eyes softened, and something clicked in my heart. “I think I might aim for something a little different tonight.” He let out a breath and pulled himself up to kiss me. As he did, the tip of him nudged against my opening. I held my breath in anticipation of what would come next. How would he feel inside me? If it felt anything like his fingers, I might explode before too long.

  We were in midkiss, our tongues wrapped around each other’s, when he finally pushed himself forward. I gasped, my lids flying open as I felt myself expand for him.

  “I knew you’d feel so fucking good.” He sighed and skimmed my neck with his nose. “I could stay here all night.”

  I was so absorbed by the fullness of him, his words almost didn’t register, but when they did, I smiled. “I don’t think you’d last that long.”

  He pushed himself deeper inside me and groaned. My heart lurched as I stretched for him again. “Don’t underestimate me, Lex.”

  Theo reached an arm under my back and pulled me off the comforter and onto his lap, so he was kneeling, and my legs were wrapped around his waist. When he pushed into me again, I noticed the difference in position. He hit me deeper, making my insides coil and retract like magic. He felt it too. His eyes squeezed shut, then he did it again. And again.

  I could feel my impending release as his movements quickened. My thighs started to shake as my muscles clenched. My fingers curled into his back as my release catapulted through me. And on the brink of my orgasm, he held me tighter, moving me and swallowing my cries with his beautiful mouth, and then he came too.

  My limbs were weak when it was over, but I managed to hang on to his neck in an effort to stay close to him. I pressed my cheek into his shoulder, letting my heart settle until his and mine were beating together.

  With his hand through my hair and an arm locked tightly around me, he nuzzled his nose to my ear. “For the record,” he rasped, sending chills through my body, “if I could rewrite the rules, I’d do it for you.”

  CHAPTER 37

  Theo

  I want to break all the rules with you.

  My own words drifted through my mind as rays of sunlight leaked through my lids.

  My eyes were heavy after hours of familiarizing myself with all the parts of Lex I’d been aching to know, to taste, to touch. But instead of this quelling my desire, as I’d imagined, I’d slipped off to sleep a short while ago dreaming of more. More Lex. Fewer rules.

  Fucking rules.

  My hand drifted across the bed in search of Lex’s firm body. I needed to feel her to convince myself it hadn’t all been a dream. When my search came up empty, I sat on the edge of the bed, feeling as if I’d just been doused with cold water. Panic filled my chest as I looked around. She wasn’t on the balcony. The door to the bathroom was open, the lights off. She was gone.

  The first thought that hit me was that she woke up and regretted the entire night. My next thought was that she’d gotten what she wanted and left. It wouldn’t have been the first time I’d been used in such a way, but Lex wasn’t like that.

  And then I heard the faint sound of a door opening, followed by footsteps in the hall. Lex appeared in the doorway of my room, her hair wet from a recent shower, her body covered by an oversized salmon-colored muscle shirt that did little to cover the sides of her breasts.

  “Hey.” She smiled shyly from the doorway.

  “Hey.” Something stirred in my chest. “You could have showered in here.”

  Pink crawled up her cheeks. “My stuff was in there. And I didn’t want to wake you.”

  “C’mere.” My voice was still filled with sleep, but my insides were wide-awake.

  She walked to me, and I pulled her so she was standing between my legs. My hand slipped under her shirt, searched for her panties, and slipped them off. They pooled around her ankles, then I looked up. “Oops.”

  She laughed as I pulled her onto my lap, her thighs around my hips and her fresh pussy directly over my cock. I fingered
the sides of her shirt next, opening the loose material and pulling it over her firm breast and exposing it. I looked into her eyes and placed my thumb to her lips. “Suck.”

  She was hesitant at first, as though she didn’t understand my request. She would soon. Her mouth moved around my thumb, and her tongue darted out before she wrapped it around her lips. I flashed her a smile and pulled it away, moving it down to her nipple.

  “I didn’t know where you were,” I said, rubbing her light-pink peak between my thumb and pointer finger. I could practically feel the clenching and unclenching of her insides in reaction to my touch. “I was worried you left.”

  “I didn’t know if I should.”

  My eyes shot to hers, the panic that had set in earlier back with a vengeance. “Why?” She looked away, so I released her breast to turn her face back to mine. “Why, Lex? Last night was okay, right? Did I hurt you?”

  She tilted her head. “Last night was more than okay.”

  “Then what’s wrong?”

  Her eyes searched mine, hesitating to deliver the truth. I could feel it, the thick cloud of tension weighing us down. “I didn’t know where we stood today. Last night we agreed to no promises. I didn’t want you to think I had expectations.”

  I frowned, understanding everything she was saying. When I woke up this morning, the first thing I wanted was to feel her beside me. But my wants and our reality were two different things. “I didn’t mean that we should put an expiration date on it.”

  “Maybe we should.” She said it gently, but something stirred in my chest. “If we know it’s going to end, then it will be easier, right? No one gets hurt.”

  Would it be easier? Somehow, I didn’t think so. All I knew was that I wasn’t ready to let her go.

  “What do you suggest?"

  “We leave for Vegas in a week. I’ll need to be completely focused.”

  “Then we give it the week.” I searched her eyes, looking for the words she hid. Was this really what she wanted? “You stay here, you share my bed, then we fly to Vegas and focus on work.”

  “And then that’s it. No more—” Her conviction at the finale of us heated my chest.

  “And then we reevaluate things after Vegas. When the contract ends.”

  She smiled in a way that lit up my insides, as if I’d just given her hope. “Okay.”

  Relief whooshed around my chest. I kissed her and pulled away. “If I only have a week with you, I don’t want to waste any time.” My hand slipped down to her ass and gripped it, holding her to me as I reached over to the nightstand and grabbed a condom. I held it in front of her face. “Put this on for me.”

  She looked at it, confused, then took it from me, slid off my lap, and lowered herself to her knees below me. She took me in her hold, one hand at my base, the other gripping me firmly and stroking. I watched her hungrily while my curiosity spiked.

  There was something different about Lex, besides the fact that she came off shy in the bedroom. I kept waving away the thought that she was exploring a man for the first time. That couldn’t have been it. Lex was twenty-two and gorgeous. Any guy before me would have been crazy not to chase her. Not to say Lex would have given it up to just anyone. She wasn’t like that. But my curiosity was piqued when she dipped down to taste the tip of my cock.

  My abs clenched with pleasure, and I leaned back slightly to give her more room, watching in awe as her mouth moved down around me. She dragged her tongue up the underside, then moved it back down, cloaking it with her lips. She seemed to be so into it, exploring me, swirling her tongue around the tip, moving her mouth as deep as she could go without gagging. It was all so innocent and sexy as hell.

  She pulled off of me, unexpectedly, looking up, her eyes unsure. “Was that okay?”

  I chuckled and immediately regretted it when I saw the crushed look in her eyes. “Lex, you’re killing me. Haven’t you ever sucked a dick before? It’s hard to get it wrong.”

  She didn’t respond. Instead, the familiar flush crawled up her neck and cheeks, and my eyes opened in surprise.

  “You haven’t? Ever?”

  She shook her head, and my curiosity from the night before came slamming back. “But when I went down on you last night, that wasn’t your first time…” I didn’t ask. There was no way, but the shake of her head told me different. “Fuck, Lex.” Disbelief whipped through me. “You’d had sex before last night, though, right?”

  She shook her head again, and I wanted to explode. Why hadn’t she told me? Not that it would have made a difference. I still would have fucked her, but maybe I would have done things differently? Given her a bit more attention before going all the way. Asked her if she was okay a few dozen more times. Fuck.

  “It was perfect,” she said before answering any of my unasked questions. “I didn’t want to ruin last night by making a big deal of it.”

  “You were a virgin, Lex. That’s a big fucking deal.”

  She smiled, despite my outburst, and inched her way up my lap, taking my face between her palms. “I’m not a virgin anymore.”

  In that moment, I might have fallen in love.

  Lex kissed me then, her soft lips firming against mine. She rubbed herself against my lap, coming dangerously close to inserting herself on my bare cock. I shifted her and took the condom from her hand and placed it around me. She stood and started to straddle me, but I stopped her and spun her around and bit down on my lip at the sight. “I just needed to look at you.”

  “At my ass?” she said with a breathy laugh.

  “I love your ass.” I squeezed her cheeks with my palm and then spread her wide. “Fuck.” I moved a hand to her waist. “Sit down. Slowly.”

  She did as I asked, the back of her legs pressing against my kneecaps as she descended. I opened my legs slightly and pulled her down, groaning as her heat sank around me. She was so fucking tight, I knew I was stretching her wide, filling her full. And the fact that I’d been the first to ever make her feel that way drove me fucking insane. If I had felt possessive of Lex before, I sure as hell did now.

  She started to move above me, and as she did, I caught her peach scent and groaned. Everything about Lex drove me so crazy, in no time I was fighting my release to wait for hers. I pushed aside the fabric of her shirt, exposing her breast again, pinching her nipple with one hand and finding her clit with my other.

  “Come for me, babe.” My words hit her one second, and she was screaming the next. I wrapped my arms around her as she rode out her orgasm, then I finally let go.

  I pulled her onto the bed when we were finished. As I slipped out of her, I rid myself of the condom and wrapped my arms around her body. My heavy lids succumbed to exhaustion, but not before muttering into her soft skin, “For what it’s worth, I’m glad I was your first.”

  CHAPTER 38

  Lex

  I forced an eye open just enough to see Theo standing above me in nothing but a pair of gray boxer briefs. He held something in his hand, and I had to squint through my blurry eyes to make out a mug with steam drifting from the top. I moaned and stretched, my body a tangle of satisfying aches. Coffee had never looked sexier.

  When I glanced at him again, he had a sly look on his face. I’d quickly grown to love that expression, especially when it was aimed at me.

  I was painfully aware that it was Monday morning and we had to leave our sanctuary, but it was the final week of rehearsals. My excitement grew at the thought of where we would be next week—on a plane to Vegas.

  Sunday had been a wash. We’d wasted the entire day in bed together, exploring each other and sharing stories of our young dance years. He was fascinated by my boring life back in Seattle, just as I was fascinated by his rise to celeb choreographer status. Things almost felt … normal. As though we could be an actual couple if it weren’t for the damn contract.

  And then his phone rang, bringing me back to reality, where I was a secret and he was supposed to be kissing Winter’s ass. He pulled his phone off the night
stand and groaned before silencing it and setting it back down again. “I’ll call her later.”

  “Winter?” Of course it was Winter. She’d seen the cut of the zoo video Theo sent her yesterday and wouldn’t stop calling him. They were setting up a meeting to talk about it.

  “I can’t move,” I croaked, trying to change the subject and my rapidly declining mood.

  He laughed and set the coffee down on the nightstand before stretching out beside me.

  Theo’s dimple popped as he ran his eyes over me. “You gonna be okay?” he teased when he dropped the sheet. “Need me to call a doctor?”

  “Does he make house calls?”

  He smirked. “He does, and he’s more than willing to take care of your aches and pains when we come home. Where does it hurt?”

  There was something so intimate about his words. I loved them as much as they terrified me. I smiled as I reached between my legs.

  His eyes blazed as he tracked the movement. “Maybe he can squeeze in an appointment right now.”

  Theo dropped me off in the parking lot behind Gravity, and I headed straight to the community area. I didn’t expect anyone else to be inside yet. But Reggie, Amie, and a few others congregated there, downing waters and snack bars, their heads bent low as they chatted. Usually I was the first one in the center. But I supposed everyone was eager since it was the final week before we left for Vegas.

  My smile stretched wide as I approached them, pushing down the memory of the tension from the previous week. The dancers seemed happy with the selections on Friday. I wasn’t on their radar anymore. I hoped. “What’s everyone doing here so early?”

  Amie’s head snapped up as though she was surprised to hear my voice, then she smiled. “Hey, Lex. Reggie was just showing me something he put together for a choreography pitch this week.”

  Reggie glanced my way, and his eyes lit up. He patted the seat beside him. “Come check this out.”