When Lightning Strikes (The Storm Inside Book 3)

by Alexis Anne

I shrugged and unbuttoned my jeans. “I don’t think it’s a secret that I’m attracted to you.”

  She tossed her jeans to the side and stood there in her underwear. “I’m pretty attracted to you, too. You can’t see my lady boner from here, but—”

  She sucked in a gasp as I wrapped one arm around her waist and slid my other between her legs, under her underwear and against her pussy. “I can tell how turned on you are from here, though.” I had to work hard to control my breathing as my fingers sank right inside her. She was so fucking wet it wasn’t right. Hot, slick, and so ready for me.

  My dick started to throb. It wanted inside her, too.

  It was like her body was slowly reprogramming my brain. I didn’t feel like myself when we were naked together. Her nipples hypnotized me and then got to work. It was the damn nipples. I was going to have to watch out for those suckers, because as bad as my dick wanted inside her, so did my fingers and tongue. I wanted to taste her, feel her, make her come over and over.

  Normally I made sure whoever I was with was satisfied, but that was as much out of common courtesy as it was anything else. This, was something else entirely. It was need and desire to possess and please. It was carnal—that if I somehow couldn’t please this woman in particular, then I was a failure as a man.

  So I let my fingers have the first round. Her breath was heavy and ragged as I held her against me, exploring her, getting off on the little moans and the way her eyelids struggled to stay open because of my touch.

  When her chest started to rise and fall faster than she seemed to be able to catch her breath, I stopped. The glare she gave me told me that she was hungry for more, and a little bit pissed that I’d stopped.

  “Don’t look at me like that, beautiful. I promise you’ll like what I’m going to do next.”

  Her eyes softened and fluttered. “How is it possible for you to do what you just did, and not utter a single dirty word?”

  I tried really hard not to blush. I didn’t even realize it, but I’d done it again. I’d forgotten everything except her, and put down my façade. “I’ll make up for it, I promise.”

  I took my time sliding her panties down her long, toned legs before directing her backward onto my bed where I kneeled in front of her and let my tongue finally have its turn.

  She tasted like candy and her hips rolled with each flick of my tongue. She liked it when I sucked, but she liked it even more when I licked inside her. I knew this because she told me with every gasp and groan. This woman had absolutely no trouble vocalizing how good I made her feel. So I rewarded her by giving her exactly what she wanted. I sucked and licked until her entire body quivered. I coaxed her on until she came like a river.

  Then I turned my dirty mouth back on. “Do you know what you sound like when you come?”

  I prowled over the top of her. She was liquid beneath me. I could probably do anything I wanted right then and she’d let me. “No,” she whispered and forced her eyes open to look at me. “And I don’t think I want to. It would ruin the experience.”

  “Oh baby…it is the experience. Your sounds are so hot they could almost make me come without you ever touching me.” I nudged my cock against that liquid warmth I was craving so badly.

  “Condom,” she gasped before I could do anything else.

  “Shit. Yeah, sorry.” I was an idiot for forgetting. Not that I was surprised with hypno nipples and candy pussy. My mind was a lost cause. At least she was thinking straight.

  I ran to the bathroom and put that condom on at lightning speed. It would have been cool to have one of those baseball radar guns to see just how fast I moved.

  “Back. Sheathed. Ready.”

  She spread her legs, put her hands on my shoulders, and pulled me toward her. “I want to hear you talk.”

  “Really? It’s not too much?”

  She shook her head slowly. “It’s hot.”

  And now I needed to add “siren” to the list, because apparently, when she spoke—no matter what it was—I was a slave to her words. “Well then, you should know that you are one fucking sexy woman and I cannot wait to have my dick inside you.”

  She swallowed and her lips parted just enough for me to see her tongue run along the inside of her lower lip. Damn. My words did turn her on. I buried my face between her breasts thinking that looking away from her eyes was going to help, but it didn’t. It just put me right where I wanted to be. I kissed the softness of the inside of each breast before taking one nipple, and then the other, into my mouth. She moaned and I couldn’t wait another minute. I rocked my hips up toward her heat until the tip of my dick hit her warmth.

  I moved on automatic from there. Fingers tensing and massaging, hips thrusting, mouth running. “Yeah, yeah…push like that, right there. Fuck.” My arms gave out a little, but I caught myself. “You are a dangerous woman. Can I fuck you harder?”

  “Please.”

  I groaned as I slammed into her and she arched up, moaning. “You needy little thing. You want me to fuck you harder. You’ve been holding out on me haven’t you?”

  “Maybe.” Her fingers curled into the hair at the nape of my neck.

  “What about now? Is that hard enough?”

  She shuddered a little, her eyes rolling back in her head. “Might be too hard.”

  I backed off. “What about faster? I like the way it feels when you’re all over me all at once.”

  “Yes,” she nodded quickly, “faster.”

  My elbows sank into the bed beside her head as I pumped fast, but not too hard. “I’m gonna come so hard like this. Your boobs, oh God, I like the way they move when we do this.” I bit my lips as I watched them bounce up and down, the hypno-nipples forcing me to keep looking. It also gave me a great vantage point to watch my dick moving and in and out of her gorgeous pussy. Visual stimulation all over the place. “Fuck, that’s hot looking.”

  She looked down and smiled before letting her head slam back on the pillow, arching her nipples up into my mouth. “Pretty nice view.”

  “Not as good as mine,” I mumbled against her breast as her nipples moved in and out of my lips with each rock of my hips. “Oh shit, that’s it. Yep, right there. Oh God, don’t move, fuck, fuck, fuck, I’m coming.”

  Like electricity shooting through my veins and out my dick, I came hard and fast, thrusting up and inside her one last time, burying myself as deep as I could go, and stopped.

  “Hot, wet, throbbing, tight perfection.”

  That was when I realized she was still rocking her hips against me and that tightness wasn’t just her perfect pussy, it was her coming again. Her inner muscles were squeezing the ever living fuck out of my cock. And it felt so good.

  “Oh, yeah. That’s it.” I jerked into her, not really moving my dick, but pressing my body and hips firmly against her, giving her that little bit of pressure she needed to finish off her orgasm.

  I wanted to do that again. Like, immediately. Sex with Marie was fun, especially if it was like that every time.

  And then I realized that after tonight, I really wasn’t ever going to see her again.

  Fuck.

  Chapter Twelve

  I needed to go. It was already much later than I planned on staying, and my flight to New York was in the morning. And yet, I wanted to stay. I wanted to simply close my eyes and fall asleep just as I was: naked and satisfied. Greg’s bed was entirely too comfortable despite my initial reaction to seeing it. The stark white sheets and simple grey comforter were actually the softest fabrics. They were plain, but oh so inviting.

  I needed to go.

  “Hey,” Greg cleared his throat and touched my elbow as I rolled away. “Where are you going?”

  I glanced back over my shoulder. “To get dressed and head home.”

  He frowned. “It’s pouring rain out there. It would be stupid to try and drive home in this.”

  “It’s Florida. It rains like this all the time. If I stayed where I was every time it was raining I’d never go any
where.” But I doubted my own words even as I was saying them. It wasn’t just any thunderstorm raging outside, it was a doozy. The wind was pretty bad and the rain was heavy, which would make the streets dangerous and the visibility next to zero. I’d driven in storms like this plenty of times, but it was a risk I didn’t have to take. Not when there was a warm bed for me to sleep in right here.

  “Marie, don’t be ridiculous. It isn’t safe out there. I don’t bite…” He had a cocky grin now. He was completely full of himself and, damnit, I really liked that about him.

  “We kind of suck at this ‘fun and done’ stuff.”

  He grabbed my hand and yanked me back onto the bed before rolling himself on top of me. “I’m okay with that.” Then his smile disappeared, replaced with a look of concern. “Unless you’re not.”

  “Honestly? I’m not sure what I feel.” I wanted to walk away and never look back. To let this be a fun little weekend I gave myself. But every time Greg pulled me back, it was harder to leave. And that wasn’t a good sign.

  Greg moved off me immediately. “What do you mean?”

  And now we were talking again. We really, really sucked at this. I sighed and rolled up onto my elbow so I could look at him. “I am quite happy with the sex. And I really would prefer to stay right here. That storm looks like hell.”

  “But?” His voice had this way of expressing far more than a simple word. It dripped with doubt and a thousand barriers I could only guess at. It was rough and rude and sexy and dismissive, all while being worried.

  “But I don’t want to complicate things. Or confuse them.”

  He shrugged. “So don’t let it.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Just like that.”

  I was pretty sure Greg was far more confident in his ability to walk away from a night together than I was. “Okay then…”

  “So you’ll stay?” He nudged my shoulder and rolled back on top of me. “I promise to make breakfast. Well, bagels. That’s all I can actually make.” A very impressive flash of lightning lit up the room and was immediately followed by a boom of thunder that shook the condo. “You are definitely staying.”

  I smiled. “Did I ever tell you how much I love thunderstorms?”

  Greg swallowed and took a shaky breath. “Is that so?”

  I rocked up my hips until I found the hard length of his cock. “Yep.”

  *****

  Sunday went by in a blur of planes and airports, and Monday was over before I had a chance to think. Work was intense and I barely had time to eat lunch, let alone bask in the glory of my unexpected affair. I just wanted to grab Natalie and get home, put on my workout clothes, and sweat off the day before I had to make dinner.

  I wanted to get on my treadmill and get lost in some music. Preferably while going through my weekend moment by moment and dissecting it for every last shred of information I could muster. I wanted to decide which stuff to remember, and which stuff I needed to quickly forget.

  Natalie came bounding out as I pulled up to the curb, her school sweater hanging off one shoulder and her bangs pinned back. She looked like a strange hybrid—trapped somewhere between childhood and adulthood. At any given moment she looked young and helpless, or grown-up and capable. But at this particular moment, she was mostly childlike.

  She opened the back door and tossed in her backpack with a grunt. “I swear it gets heavier every day. Maybe the ink and dirt is accumulating enough mass to actually add weight to my books.”

  I rolled my eyes. Leave it to Natalie to come up with an excuse like that. “How was your day?”

  “Good.” She threw herself into the front seat and leaned back, but didn’t buckle her seatbelt.

  “What?” Something was bugging my daughter. I could see it in the dullness of her eyes and slight frown at the corner of her lips.

  She shrugged. “We’re reading Romeo and Juliet at school this week.”

  “So?”

  She huffed as if I were asking her the world’s dumbest question. “So, I don’t want to. I’ve already read it and it’s stupid! Two idiots fall in love and kill themselves. It’s a dumb story!”

  “And what would you prefer to read, my dear?” Knowing Natalie, she wasn’t really upset with analyzing Shakespeare; it was irritation at her homework keeping her from reading the book she really wanted to read.

  “If I have to read a love story, I’d rather read Their Eyes Were Watching God.”

  Now I sighed with exasperation. “You’re ridiculous. How do you even understand that book? You’re thirteen.”

  “Just because I’ve never fallen in love doesn’t mean I can’t empathize with the struggles of the characters.”

  “Or the time period, cultural differences, not to mention the language in the book.”

  Natalie crossed her arms and scowled. “You sound just like Greg!”

  Greg?

  I’d never heard my daughter mention that name before. Maybe it was a boy at school. It had to be a ridiculous coincidence. I was only noticing it because of my own recent experiences with my Greg. “Who is Greg?” I asked carefully.

  “The guy who makes fun of my books every day at Grace’s.”

  It was a coincidence. I knew there was a guy who Grace said gave Natalie a run for her money every afternoon, teasing her about reading books too advanced for age, and debating the subject material with her. I just always assumed it was an English professor from one of the colleges, or a high school English teacher from a different school. There was absolutely no way on Earth that foul-mouthed, sexy man I’d just spent the weekend with was the same man.

  “Who?”

  Natalie rolled her eyes and sighed. “You know…the guy? He comes in every afternoon for his café con leche and a chocolate chip cookie. He asks me what I’m reading and teases me for reading adult books.” Natalie shrugged. “It’s actually kind of fun because he knows what he’s talking about. He asks me real questions. He doesn’t patronize me, like some people.”

  No. It was a coincidence. “I forgot I need to ask Grace a quick question. You stay here.” I didn’t wait for Natalie to reply. I just hopped out of the car and straight across the sidewalk to the front door—and straight into the firm, solid chest of Greg Hamilton. My Greg Hamilton.

  He held up his coffee with one hand and grabbed my elbow with the other, steadying us both. “Hey, watch out for the rest of us, will ya?” Then he sucked in a breath. “You again? We have to stop meeting like this.”

  No, no, no, no! How was this even possible? I pulled back feeling entirely too close to a man who I was never supposed to see again. I’d never seen him before Thursday night, and now here he was showing up all over my life. “You’re Greg?” The world spun a little.

  I felt nauseous.

  He stepped back into the shade of the canopy and gave me a look. “I thought we’d established that pretty early on this weekend.”

  I shook my head, not in the mood for jokes or games. “You’re the Greg who comes into my best friend’s coffee shop every day and talks to my daughter about her books?”

  His face fell and his blue eyes widened. “You have a daughter?”

  “Oh no. No, no, no, no. This isn’t happening.” I rubbed my forehead.

  Greg turned white. “Marie, I really think you must—”

  But then Natalie hopped out of the car with her mouth open and her eyes wide with curiosity. “Mom?”

  We both turned to stare at my daughter as she stood on the sidewalk, looking back and forth between us.

  “Do you know Greg?” she furrowed her brow and cocked her head to the side—while I felt like the entire world was suddenly spinning out of control.

  What the hell was happening?

  Greg chuckled and shook his head as he looked down at me. His eyes were softer than I’d seen them all weekend. The confusion and doubt weren’t there anymore—like everything that wasn’t making any sense to me, made perfect sense to him.

  “Well, isn’t this fu
cking interesting?” he grinned.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “I can’t believe this,” I muttered for the hundredth time in the last twenty minutes. Marie kept pacing back and forth across the tiny side room Grace used for private parties. There was a little window into the coffee shop and I could see Grace trying to keep Natalie distracted.

  It wasn’t working, not even a little bit. Natalie’s eyes were glued to her mother. They were a different color, but exactly the same.

  “How?” Marie stopped and stared at me. She’d asked that question about a hundred times, too. It was like we were both stuck in a loop we couldn’t escape.

  I leaned against the table and crossed my arms. “It’s pretty fucking crazy but it happens. We live in the same town—we were bound to know some of the same people.”

  Marie’s eyebrows shot up and she waved her hands at the window. “This isn’t like my new neighbor turning out to be my sister’s best friend from middle school. This is a complete stranger having a life that was an inch away from mine for a year! How have we not met before?”

  “You’re never here,” I said. It was really that simple. I came in for five minutes every day. In those five minutes she was always at work. We’d been nearly missing each other for months and I had a feeling if we started comparing notes, those near misses would only grow.

  Marie glared at me. She looked like she wanted to strangle me, so she crossed her arms instead. “What are we going to do?”

  “If you stop freaking the fuck out we can talk about that.” I was waiting patiently for her to move through the stages of panic, but my patience was running out. It was seriously time to get our shit together.

  She narrowed those gorgeous blue eyes at me and ground her teeth. She was actually pretty damn hot when she was angry. “I am not ‘freaking the fuck out,’ I’m losing my shit. Get your semantics straight.”

  I liked that she was funny even when she was angry. “I apologize. I don’t think I knew there was a difference.”

  “Well there is,” she huffed and pushed a loose piece of hair behind her ear. She looked hot. Did she ever not look hot? Cocktail dresses, t-shirts, jeans, and now a fucking sexy-as-hell pencil skirt and blouse. I was trying very hard to focus on the fact that we were in a situation neither of us expected or wanted, and not on the idea of sliding that skirt up her thighs until I could see what panties she was wearing.