The Next Move

by Lauren Gallagher

  "Well where else would they be?"

  Kat chewed her lip, her eyes flicking in the direction of their voices. Then she looked at him, tightened her grasp on his arms, and mouthed, "Fuck me."

  His grin pulled into a grimace and he did just that, pounding her hard and deep. "Oh God," he groaned.

  "Damn it, fine, I’ll go look." David’s voice was barely audible, but his intent echoed through Kat’s consciousness.

  "Shit," she whispered.

  "I can’t…" Chris’s voice caught. "I can’t stop."

  Glancing over his shoulder, she caught sight of David stepping out into the rain, but he went left instead of right.

  "He went the other way," she said.

  But Chris didn’t respond. His eyebrows bunched together and his eyes screwed shut as he thrust faster, harder, and when his cock twitched inside her, when he sucked in a breath as his eyes flew open, she knew the roar that was coming would give them away. She seized his wet hair and pulled him into a passionate kiss, muting his cry to little more than a muffled whimper.

  "They’re not over there," David shouted at Natalie.

  "Then go look over there."

  "I am. Jesus Christ…"

  Chris shuddered one last time and broke the kiss, looking over his shoulder. "Shit." He pulled out and fumbled with his clothes. "Fuck, fuck!"

  "Turn around and lean over the railing," Kat said, quickly straightening her skirt.

  "What?"

  "Just do it."

  "There you guys are, Jesus Christ." David cocked his head, eyeing Chris. "What the fuck are…"

  Kat put a finger to her lips and held her other hand up. She gestured at Chris, then pointed at her temple.

  David grimaced. "Ouch."

  Keeping her voice as low as possible, she nodded. "Yeah, I didn’t want to leave him out here like that."

  "Yeah, good, okay," David said. "He gonna be okay?"

  Chris glanced over his shoulder at her, giving her a puzzled look and Kat quickly said, "I’m going to take him home in a few minutes."

  "Okay, sounds good." He gave Chris one last concerned look, then headed back inside. Kat waited until she could no longer hear Natalie demanding to know if he’d found them.

  Once she was sure they were gone, she turned toward him. "All clear."

  "Quick thinking," he said, laughing as he got rid of the condom, tossing it into a nearby trash can, and fixed his clothes. Then he kissed her. "Told you almost getting caught was hot."

  "Okay, I’ll give you that. But getting caught? Not so much."

  "Yes it was. And we didn’t quite get caught."

  "Okay, you’re right." She kissed him again. "In fact, all it did was make me hornier."

  He put his hands on her waist. "Is that so?"

  "Yes. And since it’s your fault, you get to do something about it."

  He grinned. "Such as?"

  "Take me home." She kissed him. "And fuck me until you can’t move."

  Thirty Five

  By the time they made it back to Chris’s house, Kat was still aroused as hell, but the heat of the moment had cooled enough to let her body realize just how cold her wet clothes were. Her teeth chattered and she hugged herself as he unlocked the front door.

  "Cold?" he said.

  "Very."

  "Me too. Shower?"

  "Oh God, that sounds like heaven."

  As soon as they were in his bathroom, they peeled clothes off as quickly as their cold, trembling hands could manage. One shirt made it onto a towel rack to dry, but everything else fell forgotten to the floor. Laundry and a wet floor didn’t matter nearly as much as getting warm and close.

  In the shower, the hot water stung her cold skin, but she barely noticed it beside the gentle warmth of Chris’s hands. Water spilled from his hair down the sides of his face like the rain had earlier, and just like they had on the terrace, his eyes smoldered with desire.

  His kiss alternated between sensual and frantic. One second he seemed content to just taste her lips and the tip of her tongue while his hands drifted all over her body. The next second, he devoured her, inhaled her, touching her so desperately she swore she could feel the way he ached for her.

  Her need for him was no different. His hard cock against her hip made her tremble with desire to have him deep inside her. His kiss made her weak, and she wanted his mouth on her pussy, but that meant breaking the kiss for more than a second, and she simply couldn’t do that.

  He leaned her up against the wall, the cold tiles making her gasp and arch her body towards him. He put his hands behind her back and pushed her back against the tile, the contrasting cold wall and warm hands making her shiver.

  "Jesus, Kat," he whispered, touching her face as he kissed her again. "There’s so much I want to do to you right now." He kissed her lightly, tried to pull away and speak, then kissed her again. Eventually, he managed, "I want to taste you…" Sliding a hand down her back, he pulled her hips close to him so she could feel how hard he was. When she gasped, he said against her lips, "I want to put you up against the wall…" Another kiss. "Bend you over something, anything…" A longer kiss. "Throw you down on the bed…" Even longer kiss. "And fuck the living hell out of you…"

  She moaned, digging her fingers into his shoulders and pressing her hips against his cock.

  "But I can’t." He groaned softly, then kissed her again. When he managed to speak again, brief, light kisses punctuated his speech. "Because I just. Can’t. Stop. Kissing you."

  "Chris." She struggled to speak. "Chris, I can’t wait."

  "Then we’d better move this to the bedroom," he breathed, reaching behind them to turn off the water. They didn’t bother drying off. Kissing and touching the entire way, the stepped over their wet clothes, stumbled across the bedroom, and finally fell into bed together. Her clit tingled with anticipation as her back hit the bed, knowing she would have him inside her soon. When the nightstand drawer opened, she had to bite her lip to keep from whimpering.

  "I have never, not once," he whispered. "Wanted to be inside someone as badly as I need to be inside you right now." He tried to tear the condom wrapper, but his shaking hands hindered him. "Damn it." The second time, he got it open and went to roll the condom on, his movements so frantic they bordered on clumsy. "Sorry," he muttered, his cheeks darkening a little.

  She smiled and sat up. "Nothing to be sorry about." She grasped his hands, stilling them. "I love it when you’re so turned on, you shake." Her hands weren’t much steadier than his, but she guided his fingers and they rolled the condom on.

  "I’m always this turned on when I’m around you," he said, his voice as unsteady as his hands.

  "I’ve never seen you like this," she said, putting her arms around his neck.

  "You do this to me." He paused, kissing her as he lowered her to the bed. "Every time. Every fucking time."

  The tip of his tongue met the underside of hers, drawing it into his mouth while his cock slid into her as slowly as humanly possible. His entire body quivered, but still he moved slowly, giving her his cock so gradually she swore he hit every nerve ending inside her one at a time, letting each and every one react to his touch.

  "Oh God," he moaned, his voice trembling as if he was on the verge of tears. A shudder ran through him, making his cock twitch against her G-spot, and still he slid deeper.

  When at last he was all the way inside her, he stopped. For a moment, he was simply there. Deep inside her, unmoving, barely breathing.

  He touched her face with a shaking hand, breathing in short, shallow gasps as he looked into her eyes. When he lowered his head to kiss her, she closed her eyes, and as she did, squeezed a single hot tear from the corner of her eye.

  Without breaking the kiss, he withdrew from her just as slowly as he’d pushed in, igniting sensations so intense they bordered on painful.

  They were both completely silent except for their breathing, their bodies moving so slowly and fluidly that the bed didn’t even creak
beneath them. Even when their lips separated with a gasp, or because they were simply too overwhelmed to remember how to kiss, they were silent. There was nothing that could be said that would give justice to everything he did to her; anything she tried to put into words would be an understatement.

  Or, she realized in some rational pocket of awareness that still glowed in the back of her mind, she might say entirely too much.

  Something deep inside her gave a simultaneous sensation of exploding and collapsing in on herself. Her body shook violently, lifting her spine off the bed as her lungs screamed for air that was just out of reach. The world around her disappeared into a shower of white light as the powerful orgasm he gave her went on and on and on.

  Chris’s voice trembled. "Oh God, Kat, oh God…"

  She opened her eyes, blinking through the white sparks and the blur of tears to see his face. He gasped, shuddering against her, but still he took long, slow strokes, grimacing as he tried to stay in control even while he lost control. His eyes flew open and locked on hers.

  He sucked in a breath and moaned. "Oh…God…" Only then did he break eye contact, throwing his head back and screwing his eyes shut as he released a throaty groan, drove himself all the way inside her in one stroke, and came.

  Holding himself up on quivering arms, he looked down at her. His shoulders rose and fell with his deep, rapid breaths, but when their eyes met, his breathing slowed. So did hers. It wasn’t for lack of need for air—her lungs still screamed for oxygen—but the look in his eyes simply made it hard to breathe.

  Through the blur of her own tears, she was certain his eyes were wet too, and his stunned, disbelieving expression echoed exactly what she felt. What the hell was that?

  Thirty Six

  Chris absently trailed his fingers up and down Kat’s arm. Her head rested on his shoulder and her arm was draped across his chest. Her slow, even breathing told him she had long since gone to sleep, leaving him alone with his thundering heartbeat.

  Over and over, he replayed their entire evening together. The more he relived it in his mind, the less he could believe it had really happened. And if it had, that he’d survived it.

  He knew what it was like to be so overcome by lust for someone that he didn’t care who saw or what broke, he needed to fuck her. Right here, right now, can’t wait, now.

  He knew what it was like to feel so strongly about a woman that her touch moved him almost to tears.

  But never in his life had he experienced both with the same woman, let alone in the same night. She’d driven him out of his mind with lust on the terrace, then brought him to tears as they made love in his bed.

  What are you doing to me, Kat?

  Even in his most primal, aroused moments, when he’d been driven to the edge of madness with desire, he’d never been the type to do something like what they did up on the terrace. There were simply too many opportunities to get caught. His rational side berated him for giving in to temptation like that, for doing something that reckless.

  He’d never been the type to do something like that, but he’d also never been that turned on. Even now, the thought of her out on that terrace with her saturated blouse clinging to her skin, her hair stringy and disheveled and rain drawing makeup down the sides of her face like ink tears gave him goose bumps. She probably thought she looked like hell. He thought she looked like living, breathing sex.

  Reckless though it may have been, he could think of nothing he’d ever done with any woman that held a candle to the sex they’d had on that terrace in the pouring rain.

  The sex on the terrace was hot, but what about what had happened after that?

  Even now, hours later, an uncomfortable, unsettled feeling gnawed at him. He closed his eyes and let his mind relive every second of it, from the first kiss in the shower to the last shuddering orgasm in bed. Just thinking about it made his eyes sting with renewed tears.

  When she came, he swore she’d had tears in her eyes too, but by the time he’d blinked his own away, she had too. They hadn’t spoken of it, hadn’t approached the question that seemed to hang in the air between them.

  What the hell was that?

  He sighed, staring up at the ceiling. Whatever it was, whatever had happened, something had changed.

  No, it hadn’t changed. It had been there for some time. All along, maybe. If anything, a wall had come down tonight, a wall he’d put up to keep himself from admitting what he felt for her. He’d agreed to keep this casual, that their relationship was friends with benefits. Nothing more.

  Listening to her breathe beside him, he wondered how long this would last before she saw right through him. Or before he finally confessed, since they’d agreed a long time ago that if anything started developing beyond friendship, they’d discuss it. Nip it in the bud. Keep things the way they were, or rein it back to platonic friendship. He’d agreed to that because the choices were 'friends with benefits', 'friends', or 'go our separate ways'. There was no option for 'lovers in every sense of the word'. He’d taken the first option because it was as close as he could get to what he really wanted but didn’t dare ask for.

  He let out a long breath. This wasn’t what he’d bargained for when he agreed to the rules in the beginning. He knew then that there was a possibility he could develop feelings for her. He knew that was a risk.

  He’d never imagined he’d feel like this, because up

  until tonight, he’d never known it was possible to feel like this.

  Resting his hand on her arm, he looked down, his eyes just barely registering the suggestion of her shape in the darkness. He kissed the top of her head and she murmured in her sleep. She stirred, and then was still.

  He ran his fingers through her hair.

  What would do if I told you I loved you?

  Thirty Seven

  Playing with the edge of her menu, Kat stared at the vacant chair on the opposite side of the table. She chewed her lower lip, running the toe of her shoe up and down the table leg just to settle her nerves.

  Something had changed last night.

  Chris wasn’t wrong to suspect that she was jealous of the girl he was dancing with, but their agreement to keep their future flirtations out of each other’s sight had done little to comfort her. They both knew they’d be seeing—and likely sleeping with—other people, and it was only a matter of time before something got serious. When it did, they’d go back to being friends. No hard feelings, no strings, just friendship, just like before all of this started.

  Folding her hands on top of her menu and taking a deep breath, she wondered if continuing this arrangement was such a good idea after all. Maybe it was time to talk to him about it. Then they could either let the emotions happen, or go back to being platonic friends before one of them got hurt.

  But she didn’t know if she could go back to the way things were before. She couldn’t erase the things she knew about him now, or the way she felt about him.

  She couldn’t pretend that last night in the rain wasn’t the hottest thing she’d ever experienced. Nor could she pretend that the way they’d made love afterwards wasn’t the most intimate, sensual, powerful, intense, emotional sex she’d ever imagined.

  Fuck. This is not going to end well. Why am I doing this to myself?

  Regardless of how she felt, the rules were rules, and all this arrangement was doing was keeping her an arm’s length away from happiness. She was sexually satisfied beyond her wildest dreams, but emotionally frustrated.

  Something had to give.

  "Sorry I’m late, traffic was a nightmare." Blake’s gentle southern accent and warm smile brought Kat back into the present as he took the chair across from her.

  She returned his smile as he reached across the table and clasped her hand. With a sweet, attractive, interested guy like Blake, what on Earth was she doing getting hung up with the one that was out of her reach?

  "You look great tonight," he said with a grin, glancing down at her blouse before looking up and wink
ing. Most men came across as sleazy when they so blatantly looked that way, but the shudder that his gaze sent through her was anything but unpleasant.

  "Are you saying I looked like hell the last few times?" she asked, smirking.

  "Absolutely not." He lightly drew his fingertip across the back of her hand. "I’m just saying you look especially good tonight."

  "Likewise" Meeting his eyes, letting his gaze and gentle touch melt every nerve ending in her body, she knew it was time to stop kidding herself. A man like this wasn’t going to wait around forever and Chris wasn’t going to be hers in this lifetime. Better to lose one than both, and Chris would still be there as her friend.

  Tonight, the wall comes down.

  She leaned forward, hoping he couldn’t see how nervous she was. "So, tell me about your latest trip."

  The conversation meandered to various safe, mundane topics, but there was nothing mundane about the smoldering gazes he sent her way or the way he touched her hands.

  His eyes lit up when he found out she was a gun enthusiast, but when he licked his lips and ran his fingertips across the palm of her hand, she couldn’t even remember what kind of gun she owned.

  "I’m not distracting you, am I?" he drawled.

  "Yes, you are," she said. "But please, carry on."

  "I don’t know if I should," he said, slowing the gentle

  motions of his fingers. "Or you’ll never finish a sentence."

  "I’ll manage."

  He laughed. "So you were saying…?"

  She blinked. "What was I saying?"

  "You said you have a Sig Sauer forty-five." He was obviously amused by his ability to throw her off. "And what else?"

  She closed her eyes as his finger drifted to the heel of her hand. "And a Winchester Model Seventy."

  His eyebrows lifted. "Impressive. Competition or recreation?"

  She shrugged. "A little of both, but I don’t compete as much as I used to. So what about you?"

  "I sold a few last year, but I still have—" His speech halted and he jumped as she ran the toe of her shoe up the inside of his leg. Then he grinned at her. When her toe found his knee, his fingers wrapped around her ankle and he gently pulled her foot onto the bench beside him. She shivered as his fingertips ran up and down her shin, then back to her ankle.