The Risk

by Skye Jordan

  Still shivering, Julia had her head turned sideways, her face half-hidden by the comforter, her quick breaths ruffling stray strands of dark hair. Her eyes were closed, her cheeks rosy.

  He kissed her stomach, her ribs, moved to one breast and tasted the nipple. Julia’s mouth curved in a relaxed smile, and her eyes fluttered open. She stretched her arms around his shoulders, slid her hands to his face, and pulled him in for a deep, wet kiss.

  “Oh my God,” she said softly, pulling away to draw air. “I still can’t see straight.”

  He chuckled.

  “No, I mean I really can’t see straight. Your ceiling is spinning.”

  Noah fitted his body to hers, and she bent her knees to cradle his hips. “I think that’s the alcohol.”

  “Oh no.” She grinned and laughed, rolled her head side to side. “That is all you, Superstar.”

  And when her eyes finally found his, something there reached inside him and twisted. It was like seeing a whole different side of her—a happy, vibrant, sweet woman hidden behind the rigid rules and the tough exterior. He couldn’t say he’d ever been more attracted to a woman than he was to Julia in this moment.

  He stroked her cheek with the backs of his fingers, but his cock was demanding some action. She smiled, easy and loose, kissing his fingers on the way past, then tightened her arms around his neck and pulled them both upright. Noah rested his back against the footboard as she straddled his lap, reached between them, and stroked his cock.

  With her lips against his, she murmured, “Condom?”

  He groaned but leaned forward and reached for the nightstand. Wincing, he drew out the square packet and ripped it open with his teeth. When she reached for it, he dodged her grasp. If those talented hands of hers rolled the condom on, he’d probably explode. “I got it.”

  She laid a trail of hot kisses down the side of his neck until she reached his shoulder, where her teeth grazed his skin.

  When he had the condom on, he took her face in both hands and expressed his hunger through his kiss. Julia didn’t need any instruction. While her tongue toyed with his, she stroked his cock, rose up on her knees, and rubbed his head back and forth across her wet opening, her heat calling to him.

  Every stroke of her plump pussy shot a surge of lust through his cock, and excitement pooled at the base of his spine. Her tightness enveloped his head in damp perfection. She pulled out of the kiss to lean back and watch their bodies merge—and how hot was that?

  She lifted with her knees, sliding his head in and out, in and out, lubing him up with her juice and making Noah shake with need.

  “Holy mother of God.” His fingers dug into her hips. “Just fuck me already.”

  She had her lower lip between her teeth when she eased down onto his shaft. Her body parted reluctantly, then closed around him inch by exquisite inch.

  “I can’t take this much longer,” he rasped. “If you don’t get me in there, I’m gonna come all over your pussy.”

  “Do you want good or do you want fast?”

  “I want it all.” He ground his teeth and leaned back to fist his hands until his fingers went numb. He wanted to touch her, kiss her, press his face into her breasts, slide their bodies together, but he was already biting the inside of his cheek to hold his orgasm back. And once he got all the way inside her, all bets were off.

  She continued to take him, inch by unbearable thrusting inch. Her brow tightened. Eyes darkened. She finally released his cock and dug one hand into his shoulder; the other gripped a handful of his hair—and she was strong. The bite added a dark, delicious edge to an already wildly erotic fuck.

  “Julia, I’m not going to—”

  “Shit,” she said, voice tense, high-pitched. “God, I don’t know…” She whimpered. “I can’t wait. I’m sorry, I can’t…I can’t… Ah God…”

  She quickened her pace and bucked hard with a scream. Back arching, hips thrusting, she pushed him balls-deep and squeezed and squeezed and squeezed in wet, convulsive bursts.

  A warm surge coated Noah’s cock, and his hips lunged without consent, but he slid easily with the lube from her climax, and damn, that was wicked. Almost as wicked as that surprise monster orgasm. The intense milking sensation was bizarre and erotic and blow-his-mind amazing. He dug his hands into her hips and pulled her down to meet his thrusts.

  “Yes,” she cried. “Don’t stop. Don’t stop. God…”

  She nearly got off by herself and she was multi-orgasmic? How lucky could a guy get?

  Noah sank deep, again and again. She was so tight, he felt every ridge and every squeeze. He wanted this to go on and on. Wanted this thrilling knot in his gut all night. But he wasn’t even going to last another thirty seconds.

  “Bring it, baby,” he murmured to her, adding a little tilt of his pelvis when their hips met to stroke her clit. “Give me another one.”

  As if on command, she whimpered, bowed, shuddered, and screamed. Her walls pumped, pumped, pumped, and Noah’s climax exploded. Spotlights popped behind his eyelids; guttural growls rolled from his throat. The wave crashed hard, receded, and crashed again, each wave smaller and smaller until Julia’s pussy stopped spasming around him, and they floated in a calm, warm, utterly sated state.

  Her forehead fell to his shoulder, her full weight easing onto his thighs. Her ragged breaths bathed his skin with heat. Noah didn’t want to move or think or talk. He wished he could roll to his back and pass out with this blissful sensation filling him, but he needed a shower. They needed a shower. Because he planned on doing this again and again tonight.

  Her fingers toyed with a strand of his hair, twisting it lazily, her breathing quick and shallow. “Crazy,” she murmured, barely a whisper. “Hoped you’d…be like this.”

  He tilted his head, nuzzled her jaw. “Like what?”

  “Insane. Intense. Best ever.”

  Best ever.

  A slow, triumphant smile curled his lips, and his whole body filled with a warm, bubbly sensation. Yes, he was pathetic enough to suck that up for his withering ego.

  “The best ever is still to come.” He lifted his head, scraped his hands into her hair, and cupped her head, lifting it from his shoulder. Her eyes were still closed, a look of complete relief and satiation loosening her features. With color flushing her skin, her long dark lashes curved against her high cheekbones, she looked angelic. “Ready for a shower?”

  A tiny smile twitched on her lips. “If I can stand.”

  “No need.” He slid off the bed, dragging her with him, and lifted her as he stood.

  She giggled, and the sound fizzed through his body like champagne. “Your leg’s getting a workout tonight.”

  A lot of him was getting a workout. The very best kind. And with her arms locked around his shoulders, her mouth exploring his again, Noah was already scheming ways to keep her here beyond tomorrow.

  Julia’s eyes fluttered open to distant male voices. She was surrounded in white—white pillowcases, white sheets, a white comforter—and felt like she was lying in a cloud.

  Heaven? Had she died and gone to heaven?

  No. Hell, no. She’d never go straight to heaven after spending the night in the devil’s bed.

  She squeezed her eyes shut, turned her face into the puffy comforter, and groaned. Her body ached in all sorts of ways she’d never ached before. All good. Each ache bringing back the memory of another delicious sexcapade with Noah.

  She’d never known sex could be so good. So wicked. So intoxicating. She’d been with men she classified as good lovers, so last night had not been just a nice surprise but an eye-opener. Noah, she feared, was a man she wouldn’t soon forget, even if she was simply his first hurdle on his track back to the women awaiting his return to the exciting life.

  For Julia, last night had changed nothing outside these four walls. She was still currently unemployed and in debt, with a smattering of friends who would still talk to her after her fall from grace. Now she just needed to find those thin walls
Noah had taken down last night, replace them, and get on with her day. Her life.

  Easier said than done while surrounded by feathers after the greatest night ever.

  She closed her eyes, pinched the bridge of her nose, and let out a long, resigned sigh to resuming that thing she called a life. The sooner she got started, the sooner she’d let go of the sweet temptations Noah offered. She’d simply take memories of the laughs they’d shared, the intimate doors he’d nudged open, and the sweetness of his head on her chest as he’d fallen asleep with her.

  A burst of raucous male laughter exploded from somewhere downstairs, and alarm tore Julia

  from the uncomfortable thoughts. She sat up, holding the comforter to her naked body, and searched for a clock. The blue numbers on the nightstand’s clock read 11:02.

  “Holy shit.”

  She scrambled to her feet and looked around the floor, but her clothes were gone, along with Noah’s.

  “Shit,” she whispered again. “Shit, shit, shit.”

  She dropped the comforter and darted into Noah’s closet, but stopped short. The thing was packed floor to ceiling—workout clothes, jeans, dress shirts, suits, and tons of shoes. Jesus, the man was a clothes whore. Who knew?

  Grabbing the first shirt within reach—a flannel button-down—she slipped it on, grateful when it covered her to midthigh, then moved to the double doors of his bedroom, where one stood ajar. Spurts of excited conversation came over a steady background of grungy rock music, and sounds she didn’t understand—thwap, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, scrape, then another thwap.

  “If you just tweak the joystick twice to the right, you’ll do a backside 1620.” The incomprehensible statement came from someone male and young. Not a kid, but maybe a twenty-something. “Yeah, like that. Then if you make a full circle, you’ll get a frontside 1080 off the toes rocket air.”

  What in the hell? Was that even English?

  The group broke out into an “ooh-ahh” fest with a random “great move” and “you’re racking up the points” and “that’s so sick, dude.” A video game? He had a bunch of his buddies downstairs playing videos while she was still naked in his bed?So much for “no one will know but you and me.”

  She poked her head into the hallway, where, twelve feet away, a decorative wrought iron railing overlooked the great room at the front of the house—which was the group’s current location. Now, she just had to get down the stairs and across the house without anyone seeing her—at least not until she was fully dressed and coming out of a bedroom across the house from Noah’s. Only, the room where everyone cheered sat in the middle of the house.

  Dammit.

  Thank God, thank God, thank God she was leaving today. At least if his buddies caught sight of her taking this walk of shame to her own room, she’d never have to see them again.

  But, somehow, that didn’t make her feel better.

  She slipped out of the bedroom and peeked past the railing. She could see three people sitting on the sofa, facing away from the stairs. She pressed her back against the wall and took the stairs slowly, staying silent on her bare feet.

  More shouts of excitement filled the air, followed by laughter, a change in the music, and instructions on the game’s various features from that same young male voice.

  By the time she reached the entrance to the kitchen, she was breathing hard from mounting anxiety, and paused in a shadowed corner between the hallway and the open kitchen. Once she was out in the open, anyone could simply pop up off the sofa and swing into the kitchen to grab a drink—and her trek of shame would be exposed in the vivid light of day.

  But she had to cut across either the kitchen or the great room to get to her suite, where all her clothes currently lived. Not only that, but she had to cross into another hallway on the other side of the kitchen—a hallway with a wide opening straight into the great room.

  How in the hell was she going to make that crossing without being seen?

  Dammit, dammit, dammit.

  She should never have stopped at the bakery. She should just have kept driving.

  She took a calming breath and closed her eyes for a moment. There was no choice. She had to do what she could to get into her suite unnoticed.

  Decision made, she held her breath and tiptoed across the kitchen tile and into the hallway, where she stopped again, pressed her back to the wall, and released her breath slowly…quietly.

  “Dude, did you just do what I think you did?” the young man asked.

  “He did.”

  The second voice stabbed Julia’s heart with ice. Drake. Drake was here. He was also just on the other side of the wall. And, now that she thought about it, the three guys sitting on the sofa were facing the opening she had to pass to move into the hallway toward her suite.

  Dread swelled inside her, bringing a wave of nausea.

  Maybe she should just go back into Noah’s room and wait until everyone was gone. But how long would that be? She was starving. She was freezing. She was anxious and freaked and wanted to get the hell out of there.

  Wincing, Julia laid her head back against the wall, closed her eyes, and mouthed Oh. My. God.

  She listened closely for another moment, trying to place the voices, but couldn’t be sure and didn’t remember the layout of the room well enough from yesterday to help. When another burst of excitement broke, she inched her head around the corner to peek.

  Drake stood almost within reach, but with his back toward her. Noah stood in the center of the room, a video controller in his hand, his gaze on the giant screen where he wielded a snowboarder across the virtual terrain. The others—she couldn’t see them all—had partial views of the hallway. If she could make a move while they were distracted…

  She couldn’t believe she was doing this.

  “Dude,” the young guy said, “did you just land a cab 270 to switch, half-cab on back 540 off flat down, and a half-cab layback slide off the cannon back 180 out? No way.”

  “Wait,” Noah’s voice sounded rich to Julia’s ears and sent a sizzle down her neck and over her shoulders. “Watch what I do next.”

  The room went silent except for the music and sound effects coming from the video. As soon as the excitement ramped up, she took another peek, ready to bolt across the opening while they were distracted. But just as she glanced in, Noah looked over his shoulder toward the others with a triumphant grin—and caught sight of her.

  Heat and alarm spiked. She lifted one finger to her lips, and Noah casually continued his glance over his shoulder. “Okay, watch this. Eyes on the screen, or you’ll miss it.”

  As he turned to face the screen again, he met her eyes for a millisecond and gave the slightest cock of his head—one Julia read as “Go now.”

  With the beat of her heart drowning out the video game, Julia dropped her arms to her sides, held her breath, stared at the floor, and hurried past the opening. On the other side, out of sight, she paused against the wall, cringing. But no one called her name, no one asked questions, and they all hooted and hollered at whatever Noah had done on screen.

  “Cab double cork 1260 holy crail,” the young guy said, his voice boisterous with excitement. “Frontside 1080 off the toes. That is so sick.”

  Extremely sick—that was exactly how Julia felt as she rushed toward the door of her suite, slipped in, and closed it quietly behind her. As soon as she pressed her back to the door, relief loosened her muscles, emotions washed in, and she sank to the floor. Bending her knees, she wrapped her arms around her legs and pressed her forehead against them. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

  Once her heartbeat slowed, she moved to the nightstand and picked up her phone. She searched for a list of tow companies and called one after another until she finally found someone who agreed to meet her at the bakery in an hour to tow her car from the snowplow avalanche.

  Then she checked road conditions and found her path back to San Francisco open, but slow-going with an expected drive time of six hours instead o
f four. At least she could get there. And she could use those six hours alone to figure out what the hell she was going to do with her life now.

  With a sense of renewed control, Julia showered, dressed, and repacked her bags. But between memories of the shower she’d shared with Noah the night before and catching sight of the little marks he’d left on her body, her mind kept slipping back to the contradiction between the man she’d met yesterday morning and the man she’d spent the night with.

  He was still full of himself, but in a fun, self-deprecating sort of way. He was still controlling, but she found that a huge turn-on in the bedroom. And he had a sweet side as delicious as toasted marshmallow. There was so much about him that fascinated her. So many things she wanted to know.

  But she had more important things to do—like get a life. Noah was back in the game now, and he’d bring home another woman tonight, and a different woman the next night, resetting the status quo of his life.

  With more direction—and more clothes—she walked into the hall, trying to decide over the most appropriate way to leave. But when she reached the opening she’d been so terrified of crossing half an hour before, she found all the men in the great room sitting around the sectional sofa, engrossed in conversation. Since no one seemed to notice her, she moved into the kitchen and quietly opened the fridge, searching for something to eat.

  After vetting the contents of the fridge and freezer the day before, Julia settled on a bag of frozen organic mangos and light vanilla yogurt. She stealthily pulled a spoon from the drawer, the scissors from a knife block, and took a seat at the bar.

  “Dude,” Noah said, “you nailed those upgrades.”

  “Yeah? You like it?” This came from the young guy, his voice both excited and unsure.

  “Like it?” Noah asked. “I love it. Sweet changes, man. Wicked sweet. I especially love the addition of the ski bunnies passing out kisses. Hot, dude. Players are going to eat it up.”

  Julia smiled and shook her head.