He skims his fingers over the rough lace. "You're wet, Adley. Were you wet all night?"
I nod. "You know you make me wet."
"Was it the kiss in the taxi?"
"Yes," I purr. "It was that and when you pressed your cock into me in the hallway outside my door."
He did that. While I searched for my keys in my purse, he hovered behind me, his hands braced on the wall on either side of my door, his erection pulsing against my ass.
He moves his hands slowly, grabbing the waistband of my panties. He slides them lower and my breath stops. I close my eyes because this is the first time he'll see me, bare and ready for him.
"You're beautiful." He tosses the panties behind him before he blows a breath of air over my wetness. "So fucking beautiful."
The room spins when he moves. It's so quick that I can't register what's happening. Then I'm hauled over his shoulder. His hand smacks my ass and he carries me down the hallway to my bedroom, slamming the door behind us with a kick from his foot.
Chapter 33
Crew
I throw her on the bed on her back. My cock is harder than it's ever been. I want to be inside her, fucking little sounds of pleasure from her throat. Then I want in her mouth so I can blow my load on her tongue, on her lips, and on her beautiful face.
I shrug off my shirt, but I claw at her dress. She helps, twisting and turning to get herself out of it. Once she does, I toss it on the floor at my feet.
She's beautiful like this. Her tits covered in red lace, her cunt exposed and wet.
I get on the bed and kiss her lips. She moans with the touch of my mouth to hers.
I move down, grazing my teeth between her glorious tits, down her stomach until I reach the top of her cleft.
I inhale the sweet smell of her before I take my first taste.
One lick that's long and slow along the seam of her pussy lips.
Her legs fall open. "Crew, please."
It's a needy request. Her hands weave into my hair. I welcome that. I want her to guide me, to show me what she likes.
I lick her silken skin again. The taste is pure sweetness.
Her hips circle, a wanton lure for me to taste more, to savor and enjoy.
I press my hand on her stomach to hold her in place before I suck her swollen clit between my lips.
She cries out, her hands gripping the sheet beneath her. "Oh, God, oh God."
It's a chant I want to fall from her tongue for days. Fuck do I want to hear that.
I lick her, suck her, bite her and tease her with the very tip of my tongue until she's writhing beneath me, the words morphing into throaty sounds that come from deep within.
I groan into her slick flesh because my cock is so hard, my balls are drawing up just from the taste of her.
I lick a finger before I slide it into her slick channel. She tenses around me, so I drive another in, and then another.
She screams, and I know I have her. She's so close, so fucking close and when her fingers tug on my hair, and I circle back to suck on her clit, she gives me exactly what I want.
***
"Wait, wait, wait," she moans when I take off her bra and lick her right nipple. "It's too much."
"Fuck that." I laugh as I bite her.
"Oh…"
That's all I need to hear. I cradle the pebbled peak between my teeth, my tongue lashing against it.
"I just came. Let me breathe."
"I told you I was going to fuck you tonight," I say it against her breast. "We're just starting."
I move back and stand at the foot of her bed. I toe out of my shoes; rid myself of my socks and pants before I push my boxers down.
Her eyes are trained on my cock. She doesn't say anything. I don't need to hear words of appreciation from her. She's squirming, her thighs rubbing together in an effort to quell her need. That's all the affirmation I need that she likes what she sees.
"I don't have a condom."
That draws a smile to her lips. It should. I've never been without one, but tonight I saw no reason to tuck one into my pocket. I didn't think I'd see her and since she's the only woman I want, a condom wasn't a necessity.
She rolls on her side giving me a profile view of her plump ass. My hand circles my dick for a long, slow pull.
"I have some." She yanks open a drawer on her nightstand and fishes out a package of condoms.
I close my eyes against the visual of her doing the same with another man.
"I can put it on for you." She sits upright, ripping the package open easily.
I take it from her and slide it over my dick, without thought, just as I've done thousands of times before.
I crawl back on the bed and hover above her. I notch the head of my cock against her sex.
She's slick and ready, warm and inviting.
I push her thighs apart and sink in, not slowly but with a force so strong that it drives her small body up the twisted sheets.
She grabs my back, pushing herself against me, wanting the friction so she can get herself off again.
I let her use me, twisting and grinding her cunt over my cock, her head falling from side-to-side as I pump into her with steady, slow-as-hell strokes meant to drive her mad.
She whimpers and then a fuck , a damn , and goddammit Crew , falls from her swollen pink lips as she pants breathlessly.
I keep the same pace even though every cell in my body wants to rip her in two with drives from my cock.
"Harder," she whispers as she closes her eyes. "Christ, please, harder."
I give her exactly what she wants. I fuck her hard, recklessly, roughly until tears wet the corners of her eyes and she comes with a heady cry and a slice of her fingernails down my back.
Then I fist the flesh of her hip, hold her down and fuck my way to the most intense orgasm I've ever had as she stares into my eyes.
Chapter 34
Crew
"Crew?"
Her voice surprises me enough that I flinch when I hear it. I turn toward where she's standing in the hallway outside her bedroom.
Her hair is still a mess, her lips swollen from my kisses and her body is relaxed and hidden under an oversized pink Matiz Cosmetics T-shirt.
I left her to sleep. I couldn't stand the jackhammering that was happening in my chest. It was making me weak, so weak that I wanted to confess all my sins and secrets to her.
I can't yet. We fucked once, and although we've clearly blown the just friends line out of the water, I don't want to weigh down what's blossoming between us with shit from my past that will alter her view of who I am.
"I couldn't sleep." I pat the area on the lumpy sofa next to me.
I own this goddamn building with my brother. Our father passed it off to us in a business deal that involved us giving up stake in one of his land development companies in exchange for a portfolio of rental properties.
I lend a hand when Kade needs it, but he runs the show primarily on his own.
I hate that she lives in this dump and that her hard earned money pads my bank account.
She moves to where I am, sinking into the fabric. "Are you all right?"
Of course she'd ask me that after I fucked her to the edge. I left bruises on her hip, bite marks on her breast. I took because I needed to and branded her because I wanted to.
"I'm sorry if it was too much." I look at her face. She's staring at me, but her eyes have lost the wonder that was there when I entered her.
It was too fast, too much but she took it. She wanted it as desperately as I did and fuck, if I don't want to go at her again right now.
"It was perfect," she offers with a touch of her fingertips to my forearm. "Do you want to come back to bed? We can sleep for a couple more hours."
I glance down at the phone in my hand. I answered emails and made notes about today's meetings in Boston after I crawled out of her bed, put on my boxers and pants and came out here to pick up her panties and shoes.
I didn't want Sydney t
o see them, although she did see me when she walked in, alone, an hour ago.
There was no flirtatious look in her eye, she didn’t try and flash me her lingerie. She gave me a knowing nod and went into her bedroom, closing the door behind her.
"It's almost five." I tap my finger on my phone's screen. "My day starts now."
Disappointment laces her expression. "Do you want to talk about what kept you up?"
That's a conversation that will take too long and more emotional energy than I have to give right now.
"Was I snoring?" She laughs with a hand over her mouth. "Please tell me I wasn't snoring."
"You snore?" I huff out a laugh. I'd pay good money to be witness to that. Maybe I should have stayed put and let my beating heart lull me to sleep.
"Ellie told me I did when she lived here." She fingers the hem of the T-shirt and I see her bare pussy underneath. "I'm sorry if it kept you awake."
I'd pass on sleep for the rest of my life if it meant she'd rest peacefully. I know the demons inside of her own her sleep at times, just as mine do.
"You didn't." I reach over to run my index finger over the seam of her cleft. "Let me lick this again, Ad. I want to smell like you all day."
She inches closer, allowing me to sink my finger inside.
She shudders as her hand reaches for my bare shoulder. "I'm super sore."
I nod. "Tonight, then? You can come over for dinner. I'll be back from Boston by seven and I'll eat you under the table."
"I have plans tonight."
I don't pry, even though I want to. I want to know where she is every second of the day so I can picture it in my mind and so I can rest easy knowing that what I just experienced last night won't be felt by another man ever.
"We'll talk later?" I ask with a smile. "You'll tell me all about the animals whose lives you saved today."
"Deal." She leans forward and kisses me gently. "One day maybe you can tell me why you never sleep."
I pull back and grab her face with both of my hands. I stare into her intense blue eyes. "I will. I promise and when I do, you'll tell me what's living inside of you and eating away at your heart."
Her eyes flicker away from mine, breaking the moment. "Last night was everything. Thank you for all of it."
"Never thank me for fucking you." I kiss her mouth, pressing my lips into hers. "You gave me more than I deserved. I'll prove to you that we can be friends and lovers."
"I want that," she whispers against my lips as her hands glide over my bare arms. "You can't know how much I want that."
I do know. It's the only fucking thing in the world that I want and I'll do whatever it takes to make certain that nothing, and no one, tears us apart.
Chapter 35
Adley
"How was your weekend of sun and sex?" Tilly asks as she types on the keyboard of the computer at the reception desk.
"Interesting," I answer with a sigh. I'm not about to go into details of what Crew and I did intimately. I'm also not about to talk about Damaris. That's a topic that's too ripe for gossip. If I tell Tilly about the awkward moments when Kade showed up with Crew's ex-fiancée, the entire clinic will know about it by day's end.
"Is that a good or bad interesting?" She turns her head to look at me. "You don't seem all that happy to me. Was he good in bed or not?"
I try to ignore the way she's glaring at me with expectation in her eyes. "I'm not talking about Crew's performance with you."
"I'll tell you about the last guy I was with if you want." She winks. "We can share stories of misery and missed orgasms."
"I never said anything about missing an orgasm."
She twists her chair completely to look right at me. "You two are friends first, right?"
I nod. She knows that from the times that Crew has walked through the door to say hi to me in the middle of the day.
The first time it happened, she pressed me for details about who he was, and I answered quickly that he was just a friend. The skepticism in her expression was enough to tell me that she didn't believe a word I said. That changed when I set them up for their one and only disastrous date.
"I think that's the best foundation ever for a successful relationship."
Her words surprise me. I thought she'd launch into an emotional lecture about all the things that can go wrong when you sleep with a friend.
Tilly is smart with her heart. She's also yearning for a family of her own since her twin sister took the plunge last year and welcomed a baby girl three months after saying I do to her childhood sweetheart.
"I'm not sure where we're headed." I pick up the file of a pet snake that is set to slither through the door with its owner in five minutes. "We're taking it day-by-day."
"He's a catch, Ad." She turns back to the computer. "I hope that day-by-day turns into forever for you."
***
"So you and Crew?" Ellie takes a bite of a pear. "Tell me about that."
I knew this was coming. Ellie has been working part-time for the police department. She was on as a full-time employee but decided to cut back to part-time for the summer and the remainder of her pregnancy.
She's on shift today but called me an hour ago demanding I meet her for lunch. It wasn't rude. It was firm.
I haven't given her any details about Crew and me in the text message exchanges we've had since I got back from the Hamptons.
"We like hanging out." I take a bite of the apple she brought me. I didn't have the energy to pack a lunch today. I went back to bed after Crew left and when my alarm went off, I pushed the snooze button twice before I jumped in the shower and got ready in a hurry.
"You're going to need to do better than that, Ad." She sighs.
I shrug. "He's fun?"
She takes a deep breath, her eyes scanning my face. "It's complicated, isn't it?"
It doesn't need to be. We like each other, the sex is beyond amazing and we're clear on how important it is to talk about where things are, so our friendship doesn't go down in flames if we do.
"Every relationship has its issues, Bean."
"This one is different." She wraps the pear core in a paper napkin she brought with her to the park. "We're all a family. My kids need you both. If something goes wrong…"
I reach for her hand across the table and give it a quick squeeze. "He makes me feel safe, Ellie. He looks at me like no man has ever before and I love that. I love how I feel when I'm with him."
"Nolan loves him like a brother." She traces her finger over my palm. "I love him too. I don't want your heart to get broken if it doesn't last."
Ellie has always been the more cautious one. It stems from her tumultuous childhood, the death of her sister and her broken engagement to a jerk she moved to Las Vegas to marry. It wasn't until she met Nolan that she found her center. He's given her more joy these past two years than she felt in the twenty-four years before that. She deserves that level of happiness more than anyone.
"I don't know if it will last," I say honestly, biting back my emotions. "I do know that if I don't take the chance to see where this could go, that I'll regret it for the rest of my life."
"I believe you belong together. I've always felt that but now that's it's reality I'm freaking out. "She laughs softly. "I'll kill him if he breaks your heart."
She could do it, literally, with her bare hands. "He won't break my heart."
"He better not. I know where he lives."
I laugh. "Don't worry about me, Bean. Whatever happens, I've got your shoulder to cry on."
"I have two of them." She taps her hand on her left shoulder, and then the right one. "Don't ever forget how much I love you."
I can't. I won't. I love her just as much.
Chapter 36
Crew
"There's no fucking way that you're in my office right now." I look back at my assistant. "Nancy, you're fired."
She rolls her eyes because she's heard it before. She knows it's my go-to phrase when I'm pissed as hell. I am now becau
se Damaris Costa is standing in my office with her hands on her hips looking like the little princess she thinks she is.
"What the ever loving fuck is going on?" I direct that question to Nancy who has now conveniently buried her nose in a magazine. "Why is she here?"
Nancy looks up at me. "She said you almost married her. That in itself is hard to believe, but then she talked about your brother. It sounded legit enough that I thought you'd want to hear what she has to say."
"What is that?" I point my finger to the wall opposite where I'm standing.
She cranes her neck to get a better look. "That's the reception couch."
"You didn't think maybe you could put it to use today and tell the Wicked Witch of the Upper East Side to park her ass there?"
"Your office door was open." She sighs. "I told her to stay put, but that's when she told me you two had been engaged once and you wouldn't mind."
"The reason I do mind is because we were engaged once." I curl my fingers around the edge of her desk. "When I'm out of the office, no one is to step foot in there. Is that understood?"
Her brow furrows as she scrunches her nose. The woman has to be as old as my mother, but she tries to pass herself off as late-thirties. It's not convincing. "You're really angry this time, aren't you?"
I nod. "Keep everyone out of my office unless I am in there. Understood?"
"Understood," she repeats back meekly. "I need to run some files to Mr. Black's office. Should I do that now?"
"Nolan," I correct. "Call him Nolan and go."
She's on her feet faster than she is on Friday afternoon at five o'clock. I watch her dart to the bank of elevators I just came from, and then I turn back to look at my worst mistake.
"Hey, baby," Damaris sing-songs. "Have you missed me as much as I've missed you?"
***
"Why are you here?" I push past her to my desk. I rest both hands on it, drawing in deep breaths that can't seem to fill my lungs. "I don't want you here."
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