Evolve Series Box Set

by Hall, S. E.

  “Hey, you,” she cups my cheek, her thumb skimming my jaw whisper soft, “tell me what’s going on in that head of yours. Be here with me. Let me help you solve your problems.”

  I don’t answer with words, unable to find the right ones just yet, but rather run my fingers from her shoulders down her arms, eyes solely focused on their trail. Several times I do this, still in silence, taking every nuance of her skin. I take my time, memorizing every small freckle placed here and there before finally taking her hands and lifting them, pulling her arms straight up in the air.

  “Keep them there,” my voice rumbles, my first words in several minutes, and then pull her shirt up and off in one swift move. “Wrap them around my neck,” I direct in a heated breath on her neck.

  She curls her arms back and finds my neck, twirling her fingers in the longer hairs at the nape, lying her head back against my chest.

  “Love you so much, Laney.” I nip along her shoulder, pressing myself into her from behind. “I’ll always love you, my beautiful angel. You save me every day.”

  “You’re scaring me,” she whispers, and I feel her trembling under my ministrations. “What’s wrong, babe?”

  Again, I have no verbal answer to give her, not one that would make sense to her, anyway. I don’t know what triggers it, or obviously I’d work on stopping it, but sometimes…sometimes I get lost in my own headspace, feeling like I live in one world and her in another; and I don’t like it. I need to reaffirm my connection to her, and I need it now.

  I turn us, draped around each other, and walk us to the large window that offers a view of the backyard and the lurking storm I can hear rumbling closer and closer. A flash of lightning streaks across the dark sky, making my hair stand on end. The storm outside should know it’s met its match, because the force here on the inside is unbeatable, the current between Laney and I one to be reckoned with.

  I knew it the moment I first saw her. Something instinctual told me that together, we’d be magnificent. Until you’ve felt it, it sounds cliché. All you can do is pity the skeptics who haven’t ever experienced it—I should know, I was one until that night.

  God bless my brother for picking that school, that dorm.

  “You’re a part of me now, Laney, there’s no going back. No one and nothing exists before us, or after us,” my hand spreads wide across her stomach, “all that remains is our forever.”

  “Forever,” she murmurs, earning an answering groan from deep within me, my other hand now flicking open her bra and drawing it down her arms, gripping a bare breast in my palm.

  I love her breasts, not too big, not too small, high and tight with nipples that respond eagerly. She bows back, pushing herself against me as she lays a hand flat against the window, an outline of steamy fog instantly forming around it. My free hand rubs circles lower and lower down her stomach until I can take no more and release her breast, using both hands to unfasten, then yank down, her pants.

  “Even when I’m not with you, I feel you. Do you feel me? When we’re apart,” I use one finger to trace her spine, “do you long for me? Think of me touching you? Can you close your eyes and see us, as one, in your mind?” My question is a sultry rumble I can’t disguise in between bites to her earlobe and jawline. My hands have returned to her boobs, squeezing greedily in between tweaks to each nipple.

  “Yes! Yes, Dane!” Her breath fogs the glass in front of me, temporarily distorting my view of nature’s upset outside.

  One finger now seeks out her sweet spot, tracing that which pulses for me, circling her wettest point. “You are mine and I am yours. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to keep you, Laney. Keep you safe, keep you happy, keep you with me. Only with you do I feel whole. Do I love you right, Laney?”

  I clasps the hand at her side and lift it, placing it flat against the window to join the first, then shift slightly to stand directly behind her. My hands skim the outline of her body, molding over those delicious curves excruciatingly slow, teasing her hips with a squeeze before slinking to the insides of her thighs.

  “Just right, babe, just right,” she answers, trying to turn to me.

  I stop her with a firm tightening on her hips, keeping her back to me.

  “Dane,” she begs, “let me love you.”

  Without acknowledging her plea, my hands begin their up and down survey of her body again. I could pick her out of a lineup by touch alone; every line, dip, bump and curve has been seared into my brain.

  “I love your body, Laney. So soft and feminine, yet hard and perfect in all the right places, just made for me. Feel how you fit my hands,” I grunt, fitting both cheeks of her ass, by far my favorite part of her body, in my hold. “I have to know I live in your heart, your soul, Laney, like you do mine. That nothing can touch us, we are unbreakable.”

  Her head falls forward, forehead meeting the steamy window, and she moans through her shuddering as my hands knead her ass, spreading it apart for one digit to tease the part of her I’ve yet to take. We are so far from that point, or so I thought, but the sinful noises coming from her as I tease her there…me thinks she doth not protest too much.

  “I need you,” I say, mouth open, wet along her back, “need to feel close to you right now.”

  “Take me,” she shamelessly cries, pushing that glorious ass harder against me.

  “Don’t move your hands,” I pull down my zipper, “and don’t argue, for once.” Now the rest of my clothing finds the floor. “Be my good girl,” I croon in her ear.

  “Yours,” she moans.

  So freaking sexy.

  The more I talk, the deeper my voice, the stricter my direction, the more she responds. She was made for me.

  “Bend.” I push only slightly on her back and she bends like a double-jointed sex goddess, yearning to be taken there; the place where we are both whole. I push on the bend of her back once more, just to really stir her up. “Get that sexy ass up in the air, baby.”

  I ease into her slowly and hold her hips still to keep her from thrashing back against me like I know she so desperately wants to. “You always feel so right, Laney,” I manage on a pant, “so tight around me. Squeeze me, baby.” I am now the beggar, and my knees damn near buckle under me as she clenches her inner muscles around my dick just the way I like. Squeeze, release, squeeze, squeeze, release… “Fuck yes, Laney, wanna stay here forever.” I thrust manically now. “I wanna stay in you forever.”

  “Harder!” she screams, trying again to counter my thrusts, but unable since my lock on her hips is a death grip. I hear her growl in frustration.

  Lying against her back now and releasing one of my hands from her hip, I use it to join her faltering grip on the window, holding us steady. Our slick, sweaty skin glides together and feels so damn right. “I love you, baby girl, always you, you and me.” I can’t help but tell her again and again; sometimes the love, passion and adoration I feel for this woman is too much to hold inside, unspoken.

  “Yes,” she wails as I feel my orgasm approaching.

  One thing I know for sure, because Laney told me very blatantly, is that it’s 30% physical and 70% mental for her. She loves it when I talk, not only dirty, but also tender words telling her how perfect she is or how much I love her; I gotta work for her to join me in coming. It’s never gonna happen just because I tell her it’s time; one directive simply doesn’t work, no matter what voice I use. Her G-spot remains somewhat elusive, challenging me as though it’s moving around in there to a different place every time, but we’ll get there, and I’m ecstatic about the practice it will take. For now, her clit is her hot spot, but it isn’t a hair trigger. I have to touch it just right, at the right time, for the right amount of time. That I have mastered. And honestly, it turns me on like nothing ever has or could to take the time and effort needed to please Laney. She’s no easy or fake lay—when she comes, I feel like a king.

  “Tell me, Laney,” I suck on her back, “tell me you love me. Tell the fucking people in Georgia who you belong to
,” I hiss, plowing into her with vigor, raw and needy, coming from somewhere deep inside me that needs to know I have her.

  “I love you, Dane, love you,” she pants out, tensing around me, ready.

  I reach around to her clit and press down with just the right amount of pressure, swirling it two or three times, before pinching it gently. That starts her off, one deep, continuous moan escaping her as I feel the hot, extra moisture.

  ”Keep going baby, with me,” I switch from a pinch to rubbing again, knowing she’ll ride it out while I come if I don’t stop. The squeezing from inside her becomes one constant vice grip around my dick now and I let myself go with a guttural roar that comes from deep in my chest.

  I stare at the ceiling as we lay in bed, counting the time between thunder and lightning in my head. She’s naked beside me, making that little puffing noise she does as she falls asleep. With one arm thrown across her middle, I know she’s still actually awake by the rhythm of her breathing. She has four rhythms: asleep, falling asleep, dreaming well and dreaming badly. Not that I stay awake sometimes just to look at her, watch her in peace, drinking in every flinch of her eyelids or twitch of her nose.

  I wait patiently for either sleep to take us both completely or for my mind to decide what to do about my discontent. Our bodies are touching; I never allow, even in my deepest state of rest, that connection to be lost…but right now it feels like there are miles between us.

  “How do you measure success?” I randomly blurt out quietly, perhaps part of me hoping she doesn’t hear me.

  “Well, that depends,” she comes right back.

  I knew she wasn’t sleeping. I knew she felt it too, that something in the air. So of course she was primed and ready to dive right in to the conversation once I dared to start it.

  “I can’t speak for yours, or anyone else’s success as a whole, but I can tell you how I measure my own.” She turns her body and nestles in closer to me, curling her arm around my waist and snuggling into my neck.

  “How?” I ask as I kiss the top of her head.

  “If I know I left 200% of myself with it, I succeeded. Softball, school, an exam, a friendship, anything really. As long as when I walk away, I know I couldn’t have tried any harder, given any more of myself to it, and I truly believe what I did was right, then I was successful.” She lifts her head and looks up at me. “Why do you ask?”

  “I feel out of sorts, and I’m not giving my all if I don’t have passion for it, right?”

  Her body tenses in my arms, speaking to me without words.

  “I’m talking about my job, angel. You,” I lift her chin higher and kiss her lips, “are more than my passion. You’re my existence.”

  “Then what is it, babe?”

  “I want to be young with you. I want to experience college and this whole stage of life with you. I’m too young to play CEO all day, right?”

  “If you’re unhappy, then yes, you should change things. But what do you do with the company? And what would you do all day?”

  I haven’t ironed out all the exact details yet, but I’m going to. I stroke her back, finding solace in the feel of her soft skin on mine. “I’ll appoint a CEO and be the silent owner or something. I don’t know exactly how it will work, but I’ll make it work. And I could go to school, with you.”

  “To study business?” She giggles, tugging on my nipple with an impish grin.

  I swat her ass playfully. “No, smartass, I was thinking something in music.”

  She raises herself up, nudging me to lay flat on my stomach. I comply and she climbs on top of my back, straddling my waist and starting in on an intense shoulder massage.

  “You’ll figure it out,” she declares confidently. “I know you will. And I will be right beside you.”

  “Laney?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Thank you,” I sigh, her magic hands digging into the tight, stressed muscles in my shoulders and lulling me close to sleep.

  “For?”

  “For supporting me. For not telling me I’m being stupid or irresponsible. I was really worried you’d think that.”

  “Babe, your life is yours to do with what you want, not what’s thrust upon you. I don’t think your father would want you unhappy. And it’s not like you’re letting the company go to pot. You’re coming up with a plan.” She leans down and places kisses where her fingers touched, wet, open-mouth kisses that soothe even the tensest of muscles. “I’m proud of you. Plus, it’s sexy when you take control.”

  You don’t have to point a flashing sign at the innuendo for me. I roll beneath her now, looking up into the face I want to see every day for the rest of my life. Her little smirk pulling up one side of her rosebud lips tells me she’s pleased her inference hit its mark.

  And so I take control, and take some more, until we both fall asleep happily exhausted.

  CHAPTER 5

  ***Dane***

  Laney is curled up, warm, sleepy and sweet in my black sheets, her blonde hair spread out across the dark pillow. It’d be a shame to wake her.

  Too bad. I haven’t been this excited about my day in a long time!

  I pull back the sheet, revealing that round, delectable ass…and swat it, hard. “Get up, baby, I’ve got a bet to win!”

  “That hurt,” she grumbles, reaching a hand back to rub the sting I just left. “Leave me alone! I’m sleeping.” She pulls my pillow over her head and yanks the sheet back up for cover. “Go find something to do, please. One hour, that’s all I need.”

  One could play this game with Laney all day if they allowed it. She will beg for thirty minutes when I come back in an hour, then fifteen, then, next thing I know, it’s noon. Not happening. I’ve taken the rest of the week off work, putting Gary Medlock at the helm, and I’m ready to rock!

  “Baby, please don’t force me to dump cold water on you. It’d pain me to have to do it, but if your sweet ass isn’t in the shower in five minutes, I can’t be blamed for my actions.”

  One groggy, chocolate-colored eye emerges from under the pillow, narrowed evilly. “You wouldn’t dare,” she hisses in an adorable, sleepy, not at all intimidating voice.

  She really needs to develop a taste for coffee. I could just pry open her mouth and pour it down her, saving us both a lot of time and misery in the mornings. I walk to the end of the bed and grab her ankles, attempting to drag her off, but she manages to get a good grip on the headboard, halting my efforts.

  In all fairness, I did kinda wear her out last night if I do say so myself, but I’m up, so she will be, too. It’s time to bring out the big guns. “Okay baby, you sleep. I’ll just head on over to the duplex myself and get started on my room. Don’t worry, I won’t mess with yours, or peek, promise.”

  And that’s the ballgame, folks!

  Our coma victim has new life, springing out of bed, glaring at me the whole way as she stomps to the shower. I knew she wouldn’t be able to resist—the thought of me getting one up on her was too much for her to take.

  Wait ‘til she goes down for breakfast.

  ***Laney***

  Oh he plays dirty. First the threat of water, then forcible dragging me out of the bed, followed by clear hitting below with the belt with threats of cheating.

  And now this.

  Damn, he’s good.

  On the bar is a huge vase of light purple roses, almost exactly the color I’d chosen for my new bedroom, with a white card leaning up against it, “For You” written on the outside. Beside that is a line of cereal boxes, all my favorites. I walk over and first smell the flowers, letting my nose linger. A trembling hand reaches for the card and I open it; he didn’t have this done, he wrote it himself, the gesture impacting my heart.

  Laney, the first time I ever met you, had the privilege of laying eyes upon your beauty, you were wearing a shirt the same color as these flowers…lavender.

  I try to think back—ah yes, he’s right. The night of the Hall Crawl, I had on jeans, silver flip flops, and sure enoug
h, a lavender t-shirt.

  Wow. Just wow.

  I read further.

  I would later learn that lavender is also the scent I’ve come to know as Laney. You always smell heavenly, filling my senses with all that is you. It’s very fitting—the shirt, your smell, these flowers—lavender roses have traditionally been known to convey enchantment and love at first sight. And you, my love, had me enchanted at first sight for certain. And love? Well, I knew at right then that if anyone could get me to love, it would be you… And you did, and I do.

  I love you, baby. XOXO D

  My God, this man—there’s no way he can be real.

  I don’t consider myself a frilly, sappy kind of girl, but that…well, sign me up for Saps Anonymous, because I’m in! This gift is a wonderful reminder that while Dane is as alpha caveman as a woman like me can stand, he’s every bit as romantic and thoughtful.

  He sneaks up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist. “Do you forgive me now, Miss Morning Glory?”

  “Mmmm.” I lean back against him. “So sweet, babe. I love you too.”

  “Well, get used to it. I’ll have more free time now for all the special touches.”

  I turn in his arms, taking in his casual outfit. “Did you take off all day?”

  “I took off all week. And I might do the same the week after that. Depends on how long it takes me to win our bet.” He winks at me.

  “Oh, dear, sweet, Mr. Kendrick. Just remember, even when you get your ass kicked, if you gave it your all, you were still successful.”

  “Are you ready to go? I have things to do today and if you keep running that mouth, we’re heading right back up to bed.”

  “I am soooo ready,” I purr, pressing my boobs into his chest and reaching down to cup him through his shorts, rubbing up and down. Just as he leans down to kiss me, thinking I’m offering up some morning delight, I back away and finish my sentence, “to whip your ass! See you in the car!”