“I did,” Joseph says as he opens the door and steps into the bright kitchen. “Can’t ride a bike all the time.”
“No, I suppose not,” she says, following him in, the smell of spaghetti sauce cooking making her mouth water as soon as she steps inside. “That smells wonderful.”
“Have a taste,” he offers, handing her a wooden spoon.
“This is very good!” Rose exclaims as she samples the sauce bubbling in the pot. “Your recipe?”
“Just one I found on the internet a while back.”
“You just had the sauce lying around?”
“No. I came home and made it when you said you couldn’t get away.”
“Did you really now?” Rose asks with a grin. “What if I hadn’t come with you?”
Joseph shrugs. “I like it and it freezes well. So it wouldn’t have gone to waste.”
Rose takes another taste from the spoon. “Can I get a copy of this? This is better than the sauce we use at the Goose.”
“Sure,” Joseph says as he fills a pot with water to cook the noodles, setting it on the stove and starting it heating. “Make yourself comfortable,” he says as he leaves Rose in the kitchen, returning in a few moments with a neatly printed recipe, turning on the stereo as he passes by.
Rose has to smile as the hard driving sounds of rock and roll pour from the stereo. The one thing they could never agree upon was music. She prefers the easy-to-understand lyrics of country while Joseph listens to hard pounding classic rock. “I see some things never change.”
“What are you talking about?” he asks as he hands her the recipe.
“Your choice in music.”
“You know what they say about a leopard and his spots.”
Before she can answer the song finishes and another, much slower and more melodic song with a country flavor begins. Rose freezes until she hears the first words of You’re my Better Half by Keith Urban. “Oh my God! That’s our song!” she gushes.
Joseph smiles to himself but says nothing, stepping past Rose to check on the water as Rose sways gently to the music.
“You did that on purpose,” she says softly as she moves.
“I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“The hell you don’t,” she answers, but she is smiling, her eyes closed, still swaying to the music, her lips moving in silent accompaniment
Joseph watches her slowly dance around the kitchen, smiling in delight while at the same time feeling a profound sadness at what he has lost.
Rose can’t believe the flood of memories and feelings that song has brought back. Feelings she thought were long past. She shakes off the reverie as the song ends, Joseph taking her gently by the shoulders and holding her still. “That really brings back memories,” she says as she looks at him, her eyes bright.
“Good ones?” he asks. He thinks about trying to kiss her, but she makes no move to encourage him, so he waits.
“Very. What happened to us? I thought we were so right for each other.”
“We are.”
“Yet, we went our separate ways,” she says quietly, willing to accept her share of the blame for their parting. He had asked her to go with him and she was the one that refused.
“Yes. But we are together tonight.”
She steps back, pulling out of his gentle grasp, smiling sadly. “For dinner… yes.”
Joseph turns and drops the spaghetti into the boiling water before adding a dash of salt, trying to hide his disappointment. They stand in an awkward silence for a moment, the gulf of years between them again. “”I’m sorry Rose. I never intended to hurt you.”
She smiles. “I know. You did hurt me, but I’m past it now. Now I remember the good times.”
“We did have some good times, didn’t we?”
“The best.”
He turns back to the stove and cuts one of the noodles to see if they’re done. Satisfied, he quickly pulls the pan from the stove and drains the noodles as he begins to serve up the pasta, pouring a healthy helping of sauce over each pile before placing a piece of garlic bread on the side.
“Dinner’s up,” he says, waving a plate under her nose, trying to lighten the sudden heavy mood.
“It smells wonderful. What can I do to help?” she asks as he sets the two plates on the table.
He returns to the kitchen, pulling items from drawers. “Here,” he says, pushing napkins and utensils into her hand before turning to the fridge and pulling out a bottle of wine.
“Wine too?” she asks, returning to the kitchen, picking up the bottle so she can read the label while Joseph digs for a corkscrew. It is a mid-priced bottle of respectable quality and should pair well with the spaghetti.
“What’s Italian food without wine?”
“What indeed?”
Joseph pulls the cork and pours a splash into two wine glasses, setting the bottle on the table as Rose brings the glasses. Once settled into their chairs Joseph holds his glass up. “To Tim… and friends past and present.”
“To Tim,” Rose answers, touching her glass to Joseph’s.
“I’m sorry it is under these circumstances, but I am really glad to see you Rose,” he says after sipping his wine.
She can’t help but smile, but she pays attention to her plate, afraid to allow Joseph to see her face as the old flame begins to burn within her. He is the same old Joseph, but more mature. More at peace. More… desirable. She schools her face into a neutral expression before looking up to meet his eyes. “Same here,” she says softly.
He watches Rose eat, focusing on her lips, the lips he longs to taste once again. He has had other lovers since her, even now sleeping occasionally with Jennifer, one of the Nines, when one or the other of them are feeling the burden of being alone.
That relationship is purely physical, an arrangement that seems to work for both of them, but he has never forgotten how Rose made him feel... how she had made him soar as they made love, their time together comforting the soul and the flesh. She smiles at him, the same smile that once filled his heart as no other has since. She may never join him and the Nines, but he must try. Show her how to break free of the shackles that she isn’t even aware of are binding her.
“What are you thinking?” Rose asks as they sit, sipping the last of the wine. Joseph has fallen into another of his pensive silences, something he has done for as long as she has known him.
“I was thinking… how much I want you back.”
Rose feels a tingle of thrill pass through her. “You know that’s not possible.”
“Why, Rose? Why isn’t it possible?”
“Too much water under the bridge. You have your life and I have mine. We’re from two different worlds now.”
“We once said we could do anything, together.”
“Yes. But we were young then. Naive,” Rose says.
Joseph looks into Rose’s eyes, trying to read her. “I still believe it.”
Rose has to look away from his intense gaze, a gaze that makes her feel like he is looking into her very soul. “Joseph. We can’t…”
Joseph rises, and pulls her gently to her feet, and into his arms. “Tell me you don’t feel something. Look me in the eyes and tell me you feel nothing for me.”
Rose allows Joseph to pull her into his arms. His embrace is so gentle she can easily break his grasp. If she wanted to. But she doesn’t want to. “Joseph… I…”
“Look me into the eyes Rose,” he says, stepping back, letting his hands slide down to her hips, “and tell me you want me to leave you alone. I still want you, Rose. I want you with me. I have always wanted you with me. But if you tell me to leave, I will take you back to your car right now and you will never see me again. Tell me you don’t want me and I won’t bother you again.”
Rose looks deep into Joseph’s eyes. She can read the pain and desire contained there, the same pain and desire that she is sure is visible in her own eyes. She does want him. She does! But there is so much between them now. She st
eels herself. “Joseph… I want…” she begins, intending to tell him to take her back to her car, but she can’t finish it. She can’t say it. “I want… you.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
He can feel himself relax, pulling her to him once more. He had thought she was going to say it, that she was going to cast him aside. “And I want you,” he murmurs, placing a hand behind her head and steering it to his shoulder, holding her there as his eyes close, content at the moment to simply have her in his arms again.
Rose stands, allowing Joseph to hold her, the warmth of what she felt for him—for what she feels for him still—spreading through her. She had thought she was past him, but as she stands in his arms, she realizes that everyone since him has been just a placeholder, a temporary distraction as she tried to fill the hole in her heart that could never be filled.
“I still love you, Rose. I have never stopped.”
Rose can feel tears well in her eyes. “Don’t say that.”
“Why? It’s true. No matter what happens, I will always love you.”
Rose issues a single sob. “After all these years?”
“Yes. And for the rest of my life.”
They are silent for many long moments. “Yet you never came for me,” she finally says quietly.
“No. Because I knew you wouldn’t join me.”
“What has changed? Why are you telling me this now?”
“Because seeing you again reminds me of what I have lost. I want to be with you again, even if it just for this one night.”
Rose weeps quietly for a moment before sniffing, gathering herself and stopping her tears. “But nothing has changed.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I’ve changed. You’ve changed. We are not the same people we were five years ago.”
“No, we’re not,” she breathes. “But have we changed enough?”
“I don’t know,” Joseph says, leaning down, pausing with their lips only millimeters apart. “But we will find out,” he says before tenderly pressing his lips to hers.
Rose melts into the kiss, his touch igniting her desires just as it did so many years ago. Her hand slides behind his head as she pulls herself up and into the kiss, pressing her body to his as they begin to devour each other.
Joseph pulls back from the kiss with a gasp, his lips moving down her neck to kiss her under her ear in the place she likes so well. Her soft moan as she pulls his lips hard into her neck causes his blood to run hot as liquid steel. Rose pushes him back, her hands on his face, and slips her fingers into his mouth. She moans softly once again as he sucks on her fingers.
Feeling his tongue slithering through her fingers sets her desires roaring. It has been months since she has had anyone and her need for him is overwhelming her. She tries to fight him off, to give her room to move as they tear at each other’s clothes, but their need to kiss and touch is slowing them down even as they try to hurry.
Joseph swoops down and picks her up, carrying her to his bed as she attacks his neck with her lips and tongue. He drops her onto the bed, following her down before roughly stripping her of her blouse and bra. As she squirms free of her top, she pushes hard with legs and back, causing them to tumble over each other so that she comes to rest on her knees astride his hips, tugging at the fastenings on his pants the moment they are still. Their lovemaking has always been passion filled as they engaged in a contest of wills, each trying to give more pleasure than they receive, and tonight is going to be no exception.
The moment the bindings of his pants come free, he tosses Rose off of him and onto the bed. Before she can react he rolls to his feet and backs away, wordlessly breaking off their headlong rush. Panting with effort and desire he watches her as she smiles and slides off the other side of the bed. They pause a moment, staring into each other’s eyes until, as if by mutual agreement, they smile and begin to undress.
It is like her apartment at UNLV all over again. Joseph would arrive and they would almost immediately tumble into bed for a night of passionate lovemaking. No one since has been able to satisfy her like Joseph could as he fucked her to nirvana time and time again. As he strips, Rose can feel her herself becoming wetter still. Joseph has always been a good-looking guy, but now he is knee-weakening sexy. Gone is the gangly leanness of youth… replaced by the fullness of manhood. His shoulders, arms, and torso are sculpted to perfection, his legs thick and muscular… and she is going to have him.
As he throws the linens onto the floor, Joseph watches Rose as she finishes undressing. She is even more beautiful now than before, her face and curves slightly softer, her legs more shapely, her breasts slightly fuller. As she joins him in the bed she drapes herself across him as she takes his lips for her own, causing his heart to race at her touch… just as it did so many years ago.
Rose can feel her heart pounding in her chest, the anticipation for what she knows he can do to her causing her breath to rush. She moves across him, a knee to either side of his hips, grinding herself into him as he snugs her down in a tight embrace. “Fuck…” she murmurs as he pulls her lips from his so he can kiss her in her favorite spot under her ear. They are just getting started and she feels like she is already teetering on the edge of orgasm.
Joseph begins to slowly pump his hips, his need to move undeniable, his thick hardness sliding between their bodies, his own wetness mingling with hers allowing him to move easily. He ravages her neck, kissing her hard as his tongue caresses her skin from between his lips, his fingers tangled in her hair and preventing her from pulling away.
It’s too much. She can’t stand the anticipation any longer. Raising her hips she reaches between them and steers him into her. Their difference in height and their position prevent him from going deep, but it doesn’t matter. As his manhood parts her folds, she shudders slightly and groans, already taken by a small orgasm.
He grimaces in passion when Rose’s muscles contract around him as she tumbles into her orgasm. They are moving too fast, rushing madly to completion, but he can’t stop himself, his need for her overwhelming any thoughts of control. He pushes her up, then grips the side of her head, her chin in the palm of his hands as her breasts mash flat into his forearms. She snarls at him, gripping his arms and levering herself up slightly onto her knees, locking them together.
As he begins to thrust, Rose can feel another, harder orgasm beginning to form. “Come on, you bastard! Fuck me!” she spits, leaning hard into his hands. She releases his wrist and takes him by the face, mimicking his hold on her, silently daring him to do his worst. She will take it and give it back to him a hundred fold. He begins to grunt and growl in equal measure as he pounds savagely into her and she can feel her face twisting as her release bears down on her.
He can feel Rose tightening up as another orgasm begins to take her. “Come on! Fuck!” He growls, battling against his own orgasm but refusing to yield, holding her in place as he drives furiously into her.
“I’m coming… oh fuck I’m coming again,” she grunts as her orgasm takes her once more, the pleasure lighting up her nerves like an electric current. “Don’t stop, oh God, don’t stop,” she begs as she grips his face brutally hard, trying to hold on against the sweet anguish of her climax.
He pummels her for a moment more then, with a bark of completion, he shoves himself as deep into her has he can, holding himself there as he fills her with his essence, jerking slightly with each powerful expulsion.
Breathing hard they begin to relax, loosening their hold on each other as Rose settles onto his chest, his manhood still deep inside her. Neither speaks for a moment as they catch their breath, the warmth of passion spent flowing through them.
“That was… intense,” Rose murmurs as she rises up, pushing her hair back from her face.
“Like old times,” he replies, tipping his head up, holding it there until she lowers her mouth to his.
“Yes,” she breathes as she pulls back from the kiss, then smiles. “But seems to me it used to last a little longer,”
she teases, making Joseph smile, that heart-stopping smile that can still melt her heart.
“Do you have somewhere else to be?” he asks.
“No… Do you think you are up for another go?”
“I think so. We’ll see how long it lasts,” he teases. “Do you want to go again?”
“Yes…” she whispers, touching her lips to his once more. The kiss is slow, deep, and erotic. As their tongues slither and probe, Joseph can feel himself beginning to return to full hardness from the semi-erect state he was slipping into. He hadn’t softened enough to fall from her so he begins to pump his hips slowly, sliding through her velvety wetness.
Blazing Hot Bad Boys Boxed Set - A MC Romance Bundle Page 67