by Yvette Hines
Curling my feet beneath me, I opened the bottle then took a long drink.
Returning to his seat, Char drank from his own bottle.
Having enough to drink, I set it down on the table. “Now, tell me how you managed to be at the same hotel as my wedding guests. Try not to start with ‘it’s a coincidence’.”
Lowering his bottle, Char screwed the top back on it then set it down beside mine. “Is that your apology for not inviting me?”
Yikes. I really didn’t have any place to interrogate him. “Yeah…about that.”
He waved his hand through the air. “No need. When you called me a year ago and told me that Michael was having an issue with our relationship, that you wanted it to work out between you two…I understood. I could probably say that if I was in your position, I may have done the same for a girlfriend.”
I couldn’t allow him to let me off that easy. “No, you wouldn’t have, Char. You wouldn’t have stayed in a relationship where the person dumped all their insecurity onto your shoulders.”
He leaned back. “My past relationships have been far from perfect. If they’d been great they would have worked out.”
“What happened?” I couldn’t keep myself from asking, even though at the moment I was having a hard time thinking of Char with other women.
“Simple answer. Something was always missing.”
Respecting his privacy I nodded. Revealing a little of my own drama I said, “You know, I convinced myself I was in love with Michael and that he loved me… But, I think in all this mess I know I want someone that likes me and respects me.”
“Something you get from a friend with the bonus of sex.”
I tossed the pillow beside me at him. “You are such a man.”
“Why, yes my dear, I am,” Char said in a perfect Rhett Butler imitation.
I laughed loud, didn’t even try to stifle it to a discreet fake twitter sounds as my ex and his friends were frequently sharing. It felt damn good to be me.
Char smiled. “I’ve missed your laugh.”
“I’m sure people in the next state could hear it.”
“Good. People should hear happiness.”
He was right. I was happy at that moment. With him. “Hey! You got me off thought again.”
He pulled his face into an innocent look, his eyes wide. “What?”
“Don’t try it. Why are you here?” I grabbed another pillow and held it up as if I was prepared to whack him with it.
“Okay. Okay. Your mother invited me. She sent me an invitation.”
Slamming the cushion onto my lap, I said, “I knew it. She was so insistent on taking the list to Wendy herself. I should have known she was up to something.”
“Are you upset?”
Smiling, I shook my head. “No. I’m glad she had the foresight.” Reaching over I took hold of his hand. “I needed a real friend and no one else would have done but you.”
His strong hand enveloped mine as his thumb stroked my palm.
“I’m glad I was here, too.”
The energy circling us continued to wrap around us, pulling us together even as we sat in the same position. Something was happening.
“Why didn’t we ever date?”
“I don’t know.” I answered him honestly. It was something I never really considered. Char was always there, always a part of my life, and I never analyzed our relationship further.
“You never thought about us? Thought what if?”
“I always thought about us.” My words gave me pause, not because they weren’t true but because of the depth of truth in them. “Even when I had to keep my distance from you. When I had a good day I would pick up my cell phone but would stop myself. When I was having bad days I’d sit quietly somewhere and think about the trips our families took or the conversations we had for hours over the phone while we both were in college. You were my solace.”
His gaze lowered to our joined hands, then he looked into my face again. “Is that it?”
“What do you want me to say, Char?” I searched his features, looking for some hint.
He glanced away and I watched him inhale and then exhale slowly. When he turned back to me, he said, “I’ve dated other women, Katy. However, I never fooled myself into thinking they were really the person I wanted. I was just too afraid to ruin our friendship if I told you how I felt.”
Oh, goodness. The intensity in his soft brown eyes caused my heartbeat to cease for a moment.
Leaning toward me, he continued, “I’ve thought about seeing you naked. Wondered if the world would stop moving while I made love to you. Your scent haunted me nights. I wanted to know your taste and touch.”
He was seducing me with words and the light caress of his fingers on mine.
“For one moment I just wanted to know if this overwhelming kismet feeling I have every time I’m around you is felt by you, too. If I know that I can easily continue with the rest of my life.” His words were bold, demanding and zealous.
I couldn’t breathe. Every ounce of air in my lungs and the room had been vacuumed out. The kind, sweet, gentle Char I’d known all my life had been replaced by the forceful and passionate man before me. This man reached into my soul and pulled out the secret emotions I’d harbored for years inside of me.
Placing a hand along his cheek, I found my voice and confessed, “After my sixteenth birthday, when my parents had that family dinner at the expensive restaurant and you danced with me as the pianist played When I Need You. That night I had my first wet dream…it was of you.”
“Shit.” He closed his eyes and his hand was squeezing my hand.
I could feel the power of the emotions driving through him.
“Char…” I hesitated. Had I gone too far?
His lids lifted and he stared at me, his eyes now so dark they looked obsidian and captivating.
He dragged me across the couch to him. “I’ve never dreamed of any woman but you, Katy.”
I thought he would kiss me, but he only pressed his forehead to mine.
“I know right now you just need a friend, but I want you.”
This was what I needed. To lose myself in the arms of a man who desired me—for me. I didn’t fool myself into thinking that I was just using Char to be the salve on the ache Michael had left. No, I wasn’t that cruel. However, any thought that the moment meant more I could not analyze. Not now.
“I want you, to—”
He captured my mouth in a kiss before I could finish my sentence. It was passionate, devastating to my very existence.
Slipping my arms up, I buried my hands in his hair and felt his cool locks caress my skin.
We gave and took from each other in the kiss as our tongues pressed back and forth from his mouth to mine.
Needing more contact with him, I straddled his legs.
Wrapping his arms around my waist, he pulled me forward and settled me over the hard length of his cock. Through his pants I could feel the heat of it against my sex. I wanted to know what it would be like inside of me. I pressed down against him.
Groaning, he yanked his mouth from mine. His breathing was rough as he took my face between his hands. Exhaling a hard breath he kissed me again, feeding me his air and taking mine from me. I had never experienced a kiss so potent that I felt as if I was reborn in it.
When he removed his lips this time, he held me and stared into my eyes.
My hands had slid down to his chest and against my palms I could feel the beating of his heart and swore it matched mine.
“I want to make love to you, Katy. But, I didn’t bring a condom with me.” He shook his head. “Never saw this moment happening.”
Lifting my hand, I caressed his lips, swollen from my kisses. I wondered if his felt as tender and alive as mine did. “I’m on birth control. Besides, it’s been six months since Michael and I have been intimate. In that time I’ve been tested. I’m clean.”
“My last girlfriend was a year ago.” He dragged a finger down the s
ide of my neck, ending between my breasts. “I got tired of women that weren’t you. I make a habit of getting tested six months after any relationship.”
“Good practice, doc,” I teased. “Since we’re both good,” I rotated my hips, “what do you want to do about it?”
“Oh, Katy, I’m a lot better at showing you.” Placing a hand on my thigh, he slid it up under his shirt I wore and touched my sex.
My breath caught. “Char…”
“Sweet heavens, your wet, sweetheart.” His finger glided between the folds of my sex and entered me.
Leaning back slightly, I offered myself for his caress. His touch felt good, it eased the ache some between my legs. I knew it would not be enough. I would need something greater inside of me. “Oh, Char…you did this to me.”
He removed his finger.
“I’m going to be the one to take care of it, too.” A second finger accompanied the first when he pressed it inside me again. In and out, he guided me into the atrium of desires palace. His fingers curved at just the right angle and stroked the ideal spot along my walls behind my clit that had me thrusting against his fingers.
“Ah…” I cried out. Supporting my weight on my hands, I squeezed his knees. Gripping him hard as the jaws of an orgasm clamped down on me and consumed me.
Tossing my head back, I came hard, bucking against his palm. I collapsed against him, weak with pleasure and wonder, as if I’d never had a real climax before. But every experience before this moment paled in comparison.
Char kissed the side of my neck, allowing me the moment. His hand was still between my thighs.
When the blood rushing through my body had calmed enough for me to speak, I pressed my lips against his ear. “How about we do that again, but with you inside of me.”
“Hell, yeah.”
Smiling, I rose up on my knees and gave him the room he needed to undo his pants. He lifted his hips and slid his pants to his thighs.
I feasted my gaze on the thick, long length before me. I had to touch him. Wrapping my fingers around his cock, I squeezed and pumped it once, twice.
He sucked in a breath. “I love your hands on me.”
“I feel the same way.” I winked at him.
Grabbing the shirt he wore, he snatched it over his head and tossed it to the floor. Besides the sculpted muscles of his chest, I couldn’t help noticing the silver chain around his neck with a ring dangling from it.
It was a woman’s ring. A pear-shaped chocolate diamond set above a silver band. My heart clenched in my chest for a moment.
Whose is it? I wondered. He’d said it had been over a year since his last girlfriend. Had she broken his heart? Was that the real reason he’d been single for a year? Releasing him, I reached up, but I caught myself just before I touched it.
It was at that moment I knew I loved Char, knew I had always loved him. Maybe it was because seeing the ring I knew that some other woman could have had him for life, taking him away from me permanently. Someone else would have him. He’d always been there for me, even when I wasn’t there for him. The knowledge that I hadn’t deserved his friendship ate at me; crushed my heart.
Seeming impervious to my observation of the jewelry and my thoughts, Char said, “Your turn. Shirt off. I want to see all that lovely brown skin.”
We have this moment.
Deciding not to allow anyone to intrude on this time between us, I followed his orders. Taking hold of the hem, I lifted my only covering. When it was off my head I let it sail across the room. “Better?”
“Much.” Cupping my breasts, which were eye-level to him with me still on my knees, he pinched my nipples.
I hissed out a breath at the smarting in the taut tips.
Taking one into his mouth, he calmed the sting and incited the ache in my sex.
I gripped his shoulders and held him against me, loving the feel of his mouth on my breasts.
Moving from one to the other, he drew on me and circled the peaks with his tongue.
My need was so great, I would have lowered myself onto his shaft, but his hold on me was firm and kept me in place.
When his mouth released, he let me down slowly, controlling my descent until my sex touched the head of his hard cock.
Holding me with one hand, he took hold of his length in his other hand and slipped it down my slit guiding it inside me.
He was stretching my pussy wide, forcing me to take all of him. As wet as I was, I had to rise a few times to accept him from crown to root. Full and seated at the base of his member, I rotated my hips enjoying this first, being joined with Char.
“You feel so good, Katy. Tight, wet and all mine.” He kissed me.
I couldn’t argue with his words, I was his. No matter what happened when this night was over, I belong to him…and he was mine.
Scooting to the edge of the couch, he took hold of my hips and pressed himself deeper.
Moaning, I began loving him physically.
Up and down, I rode him. Rotating my hips and squeezing my sex around his cock I worked hard on pleasing us both.
Palming my ass, Char thrust into me, catching my rhythm each time I lowered myself onto his shaft.
Soon our pace became hard, erratic as we both fought with and against each other propelling us toward ecstasy.
“Come on, my love…give it to me...just like that.”
Incited by his chants and praise, I rode with a rigorous effort, popping my hips on each downstroke until nothing but the slapping of our bodies and groans echoed around the room.
Unable to hold back the next climax, my body shook as I cried out, filled with joy as unadulterated gratification flowed along the rivers in my veins and consumed me.
Char let out a loud, rough groan, and came seconds behind me.
Time stood still as the room fell silent around us. Resting against his chest, I didn’t think, but enjoyed his arms surrounding me.
Tracing a finger around the flat disk of one of his nipples, I could feel the world pressing in on us as the orgasm began to abate.
I was sure my mother had already tried to call me to tell me about the reception hall. It was probably past time for me to start making calls to cancel tomorrow’s arrangements. I couldn’t put things off indefinitely.
“I guess I should try and get into my room.” Pushing away, I started to get up.
His grip kept me in place. “Please don’t. Let life take care of itself. Give me tonight, Katy.”
There was sincerity in the depth of his eyes and something else that I could not decipher.
Not looking forward to the decisions that awaited me, I agreed. “I don’t want this night to end either.”
Once again, tossing worries away, I gave myself permission to stay in the moment.
Moving me to the couch, Char kissed me briefly then stood and took off the rest of his clothes. Once he was just as nude as me, he picked me up and carried me into the bedroom.
Laying me down in the center of the bed, he joined me. Starting at the top of my feet he kissed up my legs, licking and nipping my skin as he parted my thighs.
As his tongue slipped between my labia and stroked my clit, I was lost.
Char had me clutching the sheets as he loved me with his mouth and gave me one orgasm that folded into two.
By the time he continued his kisses up my torso and passed my breasts, I was more than ready to have him inside of me once again. Opening myself to him, I wrapped my arms and legs around him as he thrust his cock deep, burying all his thick length to the hilt.
We kissed and made love, then made love again with me spooned against him and his arms around me.
Dawn was cresting in the sky by the time we were both exhausted and sated.
Not realizing I had drifted off to sleep, I woke with a start. “Oh, shit, I have to go.” I tossed the covers back and tried to move his heavy arm off my waist to get up.
Waking with a groan, Char yawned and sat up. Wrapping his arm tighter around me, he pulled me
back beneath the covers. “Where are you rushing off to?”
“My suite.” Unable to look into the eyes of the man that revealed my heart to me last night, I said, “This was nice, but I have a wedding to cancel.” I tried to turn away.
Holding me firm, he said, “Nice? That’s what you call the amazing night we had?”
“Um.” I licked my lips, trying to keep my composure. I made the mistake of looking into his face. Man his eyes are beautiful in the morning. They were the color of homemade caramel.
“Katy?”
“No. Of course not. It was amazing to me as well. But…” This was the conversation I didn’t look forward to having. Why couldn’t he just allow me to get dressed and leave?
“But what?” His hand on my hip rocked my body, pulling my attention to him.
However, instead of looking into his face my gaze locked on that necklace again; the ring. “We both have lives, a story of pain. This was an amazing respite, but it is time for us to get back to reality.”
“Both have stories of pain?”
Rolling my eyes, at his attempt to ignore the talisman that was hanging around his neck between us, I said, “I can see the ring, Char. I know you were either engaged to someone or at least considering popping the question before some woman must have hurt you.”
Seeing the stunned look on his face, I used that opportunity to shove away from him, he released me. I sat up on the side of the bed. That’s when I realized my eyes were on fire. Really burning from the ache in my heart.
Shit, I’m going to cry. I knew it. Yesterday I hadn’t wanted to cry over the asshole that cheated on me. However, today I fought the tears because I felt like I’d lost the man I loved even before I knew I loved him. Another already owned his heart. Isn’t that damn poetic justice?
Sitting there I gulped in air. I didn’t have a right to the pain infiltrating my heart and I knew it. If I hadn’t walked in on Lenzy and Michael, I would have even now been getting ready to marry someone else. Even as much as I was angry and hurt by what happened yesterday, I knew I wouldn’t be sporting Michael’s ring around my neck. Oh, hell, no.
“Katy, look at me.”
I didn’t want to.
“Please,” Char urged.