The Risk

by Skye Jordan

  “Open your eyes, Julia.”

  Her lids parted.

  “Watch what you’re doing to yourself.” Her gaze lowered between her legs, and she whimpered. Her hips began to rock to the rhythm of her hand. Noah leaned close, breathed in the scent of her arousal. “You’re gorgeous. Hot. Erotic. Amazing.”

  Her eyes glazed over, mouth dropped open. She was on the edge of climax.

  “Stop,” Noah ordered abruptly. Julia’s gaze jumped to his, questioning. “I said stop.”

  This whimper was not pleased. She squeezed her eyes shut and fisted the comforter, her hips rocking and pulsing against nothing. A trickle of juice escaped her lips, and he released himself from his boxers, then stroked a finger through her folds like icing on a cake and spread it along his cock.

  “Come here,” he said, “on your knees.”

  She closed her legs, rolled to her knees, and moved in front of him. Her gaze lowered to his hand, and she licked her lips as she watched him stroke himself.

  “You like that?” he asked.

  She scraped her lower lip between her teeth. With a flick of her gaze to his and a smile, she nodded.

  “You fuckin’ blow me away,” he murmured. “Want to suck me?”

  Her gaze lifted again, those big eyes drenched with desire. “So much.”

  He released his cock, stepped next to the bed, and took her face gently between his hands. “It’s all yours.”

  Excitement sparked in her gaze. She licked her lips and leaned in. With her gaze on his, she slid her tongue around his tip. “Tease.”

  She grinned and stroked her tongue down his length.

  “Uh-uh.” He took control, pulling her mouth to his head. “Open.” When she did, he slowly, slowly, slowly pulled her mouth over his cock, her tongue teasing his head. Excitement flooded his groin, thickened his throat. “Suck.”

  She closed her mouth around him, and the delirium of moist heat and luscious pressure shot need straight through his cock. His glutes tensed, thrusting him forward. His head bumped her throat.

  “Open.” He closed his fingers around the silky strands of her hair, and when she opened her throat, he nudged forward and ordered, “Swallow.”

  The order made Julia’s sex clench. She was wet and full and aching as she closed her eyes and concentrated on the task of pleasuring Noah with the tug and roll of her throat. He was thick and long and hot, and she imagined him filling her pussy, stretching her, burning inside her.

  His tip molded to her throat with each convulsion as she swallowed, and she imagined how the hot, wet, powerful massage must feel to the head of his cock—a lot like the pleasure he brought her by sucking on her clit. And oh God, how she wished she could feel his hot mouth on her now.

  A shudder of pleasure snaked through his powerful body. His eyes looked black in the shadows, his expression tight. His fingers massaged her scalp as his hips thrust in a perfect rhythm to fuck her mouth. With a little lift of his hips, his head popped in and out of her throat as she swallowed.

  “Goddamn, that’s good,” he barely got out in rough, slurred speech.

  He released her hair, slid his hands over her shoulders, down her back, over her ass. His fingers slipped between her legs and stroked. God, she needed to come. So badly. Julia groaned around his cock and arched her back, lifting her hips into the touch.

  Noah understood the indirect request, and the pressure of his fingers drawing her sex open and sliding over the swollen tissues made her whimper. Made her suck harder.

  “Jesus, I love your mouth,” he rasped against her skin, his lips pressing kisses to the tender skin of her waist and lower back. His fingers delved deeper, one hand holding her open, the other swirling inside her. Stretching and stroking until a burn bit into her pussy. “You’re dripping.”

  She groaned and rocked her hips to take his fingers deeper. Noah pushed home, bringing pressure and heat, then dragged from her body, making her hum a plea for more. She rocked her hips to facilitate the finger fucking she craved. And the hotter she got, the harder and deeper she sucked his cock. But without direct stimulation to her clit, she couldn’t come. She just rose and rose and rose without tipping over the edge.

  “You are sugar straight to the vein.” He dragged her juices over the tight pucker of her ass and circled and circled and circled until Julia thought she’d scream. Her pleasure overwhelmed her. Noah’s cock slipped from her mouth; her hands dug into his thighs.

  “Oh God.” Her hips bucked into his hand, her back arching, head falling back, mouth falling open. “God. Please…”

  With a growl, Noah pounded his fingers deep, deep, deep, then stroked his thumb over her pucker and ordered, “Come for me, Julia.”

  The orgasm broke like an explosion at the center of her body, burning outward from her core. She cried out, the pleasure so intense it bordered on pain. Every inch of her body was washed by the pleasure, making her spasm and twist and moan.

  Julia pressed her face into the comforter and sank onto her belly on the bed. Noah brushed her hair off her face and kissed her cheek, giving her time to float back to earth.

  “Tell me the truth,” he finally murmured. “Is that better than sex?”

  She closed her eyes for a long moment. “Depends on who I’m having sex with.”

  “With me. Be honest.”

  She smiled and turned her head to look into his eyes, still hot with lust. “Touching myself is pleasurable. You touching me is naughty and erotic. But sex with you…is euphoric.”After a split second of searching her eyes, he broke out into a wide smile. “Then let’s get it on, slave girl.”

  Julia lay on her side, head propped on her hand, watching Noah sleep. She should be exhausted after the hoops he’d put her through. Thoughts of their sex-filled hours made her smile. He was everything women craved in the bedroom—sensual and considerate, erotic and demanding, passionate and loving. And funny. She laughed softly, remembering his tickle fest and teasing. Out of the bedroom, he was dedicated, loyal, focused, driven, and fun.

  If their situations were different…

  She stopped herself before she let her mind slip down that road. With a sigh, she rolled out of bed and wandered into the hallway. She paused at the balcony and curled her fingers around the ironwork. Tall windows in the living room exposed snow-covered mountains shining in the moonlight, a pristine and tranquil setting against a backdrop of navy-blue velvet.

  But her concerns limited her ability to enjoy the natural beauty. She still had to break the bad news about the bone cement to Noah, and that was going to be difficult for him to accept. She’d left another message for the surgeon after she and Noah had returned from Zephyr Academy, and continued to scour the Internet for research on the product, but everything she found only pointed her to the untested, possibly unstable state at this early date in the healing process.

  She planned to stress the positive when she broke the news, telling Noah that with continued training, he’d be strong and healthy and ready to kick ass next season. But she knew all too well how far

  away next season seemed to an athlete. And to sponsors. Yes, he would undoubtedly lose some. But others would stick by him the way Drake had.

  She closed her eyes with dread. Oh, how she didn’t relish having to be the one to tell him.

  “Hey.” His soft voice sounded behind her and made her jump. Then his warm arms slid around her waist, and the front of his hard body pressed against her back. His erection curved along the slope of her ass as he laid his lips to her shoulder. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. You scared me.”

  “Sorry.” He turned his head and kissed her neck. “Why aren’t you passed out after the night we’ve had? I’m exhausted.”

  She laughed and leaned back into the cock denting her skin. “Don’t feel exhausted to me.”

  He groaned and kissed her again. One hand slid up her body and stroked her neck where the collar had been before he’d removed it—and subsequently used the twin straps to
secure her wrists to the headboard. The memory stoked heat deep in her body and made her smile.

  “I certainly can’t deny what my cock wants…even if the rest of me is completely wasted.” He pressed a hand to her face, turning her head toward him, then kissed her, slow and sweet. “But in this case, if I give my cock what it wants, my body may revolt and have a heart attack.”

  Julia laughed.

  He kissed her shoulder and wrapped her tight in his arms. “Come sleep with me?”

  “Mmm,” she hummed at the delicious idea. “Absolutely.”

  Noah drew her around by the shoulder, then lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed. He crawled over her and wrapped his arms around her, drawing her close to rest his chin on top of her head.

  Julia snuggled into him, letting his deep, even breaths soothe the worries that tried to creep back in. But outside, dawn started to lighten the sky, and she’d have to tell him soon. Definitely before his scheduled doctor’s appointment in the morning.

  She glanced back and found his eyes closed, his long golden lashes resting quietly on his cheekbones, his handsome face loose in relaxation. He heaved a satisfied sigh, rocked his head deeper into the pillow, and tightened the arm at her waist. Julia’s heart squeezed with equal parts love and pain.

  No, she wouldn’t force him to hear her out now. She’d wait for the morning, until he’d had a few hours of solid sleep so his brain could absorb the news and function with the fallout. They had an undetermined amount of time in the future to deal with the bad news. But they only had the next few hours to exist in peace with nothing between them.

  Julia snuggled closer and stroked her hand over his forearm, but she didn’t sleep. She still had to figure out the best way to tell Noah his leg wasn’t stable enough to compete.

  Julia’s eyes fluttered open to bright sunlight. She was completely disoriented to place and time. She pushed up on her hands and winced at a barrage of aches in unusual places. Then she smiled.

  Noah.

  Her mind snagged. Alarm coiled in her gut. She opened her eyes, and the alarm blew into panic. “Noah?” she yelled, throwing the covers back. “Noah.”

  She looked at the clock. 10:28 a.m.

  “Holy shit.” Then caught sight of the note beside the clock and snapped it up.

  You looked so peaceful, I decided to let you sleep in.

  I’ll make breakfast as soon as I get back from the doctor.

  “No. No.” She pushed her feet to the railing. “Noah!”

  Silence.

  Her heart plummeted. Her shoulders sank. She closed her eyes and hung her head. Guilt swamped her chest and her mind raced. Too late to reach him before the appointment. Too late to meet him at the doctor’s office.

  She pressed a hand to her eyes, where tears of fear burned. “Dammit.”

  McMillan was probably signing off on his medical release right now. Was probably telling Noah that he was good to go do all those crazy-ass stunts he loved so much. Now, trying to get him to believe the risks she’d discovered was going to be a royal bitch. And she’d, no doubt, look like the bad guy.

  Dropping her face into her hands, she sighed a groan. She turned into the room, dragged Noah’s red button-down from the floor and slipped it on, then headed downstairs to wait.

  By the time she reached the kitchen, her stomach was coiled so tight, it ached. On the counter, the coffeepot remained dry, the blender unused, his supplements still in their baggie. She sighed, wondering what it would take to keep him healthy after she was gone.

  After twenty torturous minutes of waiting, she decided to shower and turned for the stairs. She’d just gripped the banister when the front door burst open, followed by Noah’s bellow.

  “Julia!”

  She jumped so hard, she tripped on the first step. Alarm zinged up her spine, and she rushed into the kitchen, just as he swept in, parka and boots still on, snow on his shoulders and in his hair. “What?”

  He caught his forward momentum on the breakfast bar, his expression intense. The second it took him to catch his breath, Julia’s mind righted, and she knew what this was about—not the emergency his panic indicated but the visit to McMillan.

  “You tell me,” he said, slapping down a medical form releasing Noah to compete in the X Games with McMillan’s signature at the bottom in bold black ink. “Tell me all about your visit to McMillan yesterday behind my back.”

  She stiffened and crossed her arms against the chill he’d brought into the house. “It looks like he already told you at least part of it.”

  Noah moved around the counter and came toward her with an intensity that made her take a step back.

  “Julia…” he warned.

  God, this wasn’t how she’d wanted to tell him. “You know I’ve been researching the material the surgeon used. I’ve put several calls in to him, but he hasn’t called me back, so I found a data specifications sheet on the compound—”

  “Stop with the medical talk,” he said, voice loud and rough. “Why didn’t you tell me you were going to see him?”

  “Because I wanted to get as much information together as I could before I brought it to you to explain the risks.”

  He huffed a laugh that wasn’t a laugh at all and looked away, his gaze scanning the kitchen before returning to drill into Julia. “You know these Games represent millions and millions of dollars to me.”

  “I knew this was going to be difficult news to give you. I was waiting for the right time—”

  “The right time? So right after you got home from the meeting and took me out to Zephyr Academy, that wasn’t the right time? Because I recall all sorts of free moments you could have mentioned it.”

  She shifted on her feet. Tension pulled her shoulders toward her ears. “I wanted to do some more research on the cement. I wanted to show you that there’s more to your future than the Games. I wanted—”

  “You wanted to manipulate my decisions.”

  “No, I just… Right now you can’t see anything but the Games—”

  “That’s because that’s what I do. I’m a snowboarder, Julia. There’s nothing else for me but the Games.”

  “That’s not true—”

  “It is true. I barely made it out of high school. I have no other vocation, no other skill. I’m sorry, baby, I’m not a fucking Einstein. I can’t build computer programs or run a marketing firm or learn medicine. All I can do is slide down hills covered in ice on a goddamned piece of fiberglass. That’s it. Without the Games, I have nothing.”

  Her heart sank back into a familiar and dark place. “So you don’t care if the cement they used on your leg could cause your bone to shatter, which would ultimately result in the amputation of your leg below the knee.”

  “McMillan said your concerns were unfounded and far-fetched.”

  Acid burned across her ribs. She pressed her lips together to keep herself from seething out hateful, angry remarks. “Dr. McMillan is very invested in your success at the Games because adding you to his list of achievements would make him look good. I’m concerned with your long-term health.”

  Noah’s hand jerked up as he gestured to himself. “It would make me look pretty fuckin’ good too. And it seems to me that your concern for my long-term health is another way of padding your bank account. You pushed him to recommend more therapy for me to Epic?”

  His words were an accusation, not a question, and the direction of this argument started a tremble deep in her body. “Given all we don’t know about the cement, I think it’s critical that you continue getting therapy, yes.”

  He took another menacing step forward. “You’re fucking with my biggest sponsor, Julia. Didn’t you stop to consider how that would look to them? That they might pull support if they have to dump any more money into me?”

  No. She hadn’t looked at it that way. All she’d been able to see was concern for his future. “Your long-term health is more important than one event.”

  “Or maybe a steady ca
sh influx for you is more important than me going to the Games.”

  Pain stabbed Julia’s heart. She sucked a sharp breath and held it, unable to believe the man she’d fallen in love with had actually made that accusation.

  Silence fell between them, a silence that seemed extremely loud after all the yelling.

  Noah shook his head, looked away, rubbed a hand over his mouth, scraped his hand through his hair. Then he took another step closer, and his scent touched her nose, a scent that felt as familiar as her own. One she loved. One that brought back amazing memories of the deep connection they’d forged. A connection she could feel slipping away.

  “Tell me this,” he demanded.

  She forced herself to meet his eyes.

  “If you could have convinced McMillan not to sign my release, would you have let him hold me back from the Games?”

  She thought back over all the information she knew about the cement, the screws, his injury, his rehab, his stunts. She thought over McMillan’s reaction to her visit, the surgeon’s silence, the overall risk to Noah’s health. And knew none of that mattered to Noah in this moment. None of it would heal the fierce betrayal she saw in his eyes.

  “Knowing everything I know…” she said, forcing the honesty forward despite the pain it would cause them both. Because now she had to do for Noah what no one had done for her all those years ago. He might hate her for it, but she’d hate herself more if she kept it from him. “Putting your health and the longevity of your career first… Yes. If I could have kept you from the Games, I would have.”

  He stepped back and straightened, and the look that came over his face was remote, like he’d just tucked his heart and soul away somewhere safe—far, far away from her.

  She just needed him to pound in the last nail, and she could let go the way he just had. “So, you tell me this. Are you going to ignore everything I’ve said, all the information I’ve given you, and compete, even if it risks your health?”

  His expression was resolute…and deeply betrayed. “I’m definitely going to compete.”