by Cari Quinn
A reconciliation demanded big gestures. And while no one Spencer’s size could claim to be thrilled by an invitation to share her snug full bed—though at least her sweet Delaney’s discount had enabled her to invest in a much nicer real wood frame—she hoped he would get what this meant to her.
He’d told her parents he loved her—whoa—so tit for tat, she’d let him invade her bed. Then, maybe, maybe she’d encourage him to finish invading her heart.
He got to her apartment before she did, which made her grin. Apparently erection difficulties were a thing of the past. Hell, she liked being his Cialis. She’d happily take on that role for the rest of her life.
She parked beside him and climbed out of her car, brushing her hair away from her face as the wind kicked up. The first few fall leaves scattered across the asphalt, skidding around his feet as he approached. For some reason, she couldn’t stop staring at the sneakers poking out from under his dress pants. Weird and very un-Spencer-like.
Sneakers. Dress pants. The sixteenth of September. A memory tickled the back of her mind and she gasped as she lifted her gaze to his face. His very amused, sexy face. “What are you doing here?”
“Um, you invited me?”
“No, no, that’s not what I mean. It’s September sixteenth. I didn’t realize before. Why aren’t you in Virginia for the opening of the Roanoke store?”
“Took the night off.” He shrugged. “I was there earlier.”
She reached up and held her hand against his forehead. He grinned and she knew he was thinking of the time she’d done that at Kink. “I should call 9-1-1.”
“Save that phone call for after we’re through.”
“This day is huge for you. You’ve been waiting forever for Roanoke to open. But you’re here, with me. Why?”
“You remember how you said you just didn’t feel the same about the store anymore?”
“Yeah.”
“Neither do I. It took me awhile to get where you got in a couple days. I didn’t want to give up. But eventually even an old dog’s gotta find some new tricks.”
Her breath caught. It wasn’t possible. “What are you saying?”
“I’m done, Kelly. All the way done. I stayed for the launch today, went to the fancy party in my sneakers,” he grinned, “and then walked out the door. I called Diana on the way to the airport.”
“But—”
He covered her lips with his finger. “If I promise to explain everything later, will you trust me enough to let me enjoy the rest of my first night unemployed?”
Her mind whirled. Spencer had quit? Just walked away? “I can’t believe this. Any of it. That you’re really here, that you really—”
Love me.
“Believe it.” He leaned down to nibble her ear, licking the spot just behind her lobe she hadn’t realized was such a trigger zone. “I hope you have condoms. Lots of them.”
Right on cue, she shivered. His tongue was like warm silk and she wanted to feel it everywhere. “We don’t need any.”
He edged back and tipped up her chin. His stare was so probing, she jerked a shoulder to divert some of his attention from her face. In a minute she’d be blushing. He always had that effect on her. “You said you didn’t sleep with Diana, that you haven’t been with anyone else.”
“And you believe me.”
“I believe you.”
His smile could’ve rivaled the fireworks display over the bay on the Fourth of July. And it struck her stupid, as usual.
“Since I know you’re dying to know, I haven’t been with anyone either. Though I did go on a date last week and the guy kissed me. Multiple times.”
“Where?”
She laughed. “Nowhere interesting, pervert.”
“You’re saying your mouth isn’t interesting?” Spencer leaned in and outlined her lips with first his fingertip and then, when she was on the verge of a shudder, the tip of his tongue. “I have to disagree.”
He locked his hand around her hip and dragged her closer, cupping her jaw with his free hand. He slanted his mouth over hers, swallowing her stunned moan and sucking her tongue so deep she actually swayed.
It was like a dozen other kisses they’d shared but it wasn’t. Knowing he loved her, admitting she still loved him—even if she hadn’t told him—made everything new and exciting. And yet so unbearably familiar she couldn’t stave off the tears that sprang into her eyes.
This, this, was what kept her up late at night, missing him. Needing him. She’d never found anything approaching passion like this with another man. More, she didn’t want to.
His strong pulls on her tongue provoked a fierce drumbeat between her thighs, the prelude to the storm of lovemaking her body hungered for. For once she couldn’t wait to be weak, to be driven past all rationality to the place he brought her to so easily.
“Parking…lot,” she gasped between kisses, sure he wouldn’t be able to hear her. The roar of blood in her ears muted everything until she couldn’t be positive she’d even said the words aloud. “God, I can’t feel my feet.”
Spencer laughed, the sound rumbling through his chest and spreading warmth through every part of her not sizzling already. He moved his kisses to her neck, his mouth sweeping hot, wet trails of pure sensation. “Let’s take the edge off.”
Before she had time to figure out what that meant, he pushed her backward, shielding her with his body as he shoved up her skirt. Protests rose in her throat, dissolving in a scream he muffled with his mouth when the blunt tip of his finger slid over her cotton-covered pussy. He rubbed her clit through the fabric, soaking her panties in the liquid proof of what he did to her.
She rode his finger shamelessly, winding her hands through his hair to make sure he kept kissing her. As his movements sped up, he drove her against the car, almost bending her over the trunk.
Thank God she didn’t have a lot of neighbors because her respectable building was about to go right into the gutter.
Breathing hard, she looked up at him framed in the moonlight, the breeze tousling his angelic blond hair above the dark blur of his eyes. He kept touching her through the material using just that one finger, teasing her swollen clit until every inch of her body pulsed with need.
She reached between them and yanked his zipper, pulling it down over the thick length trapped beneath. Once she’d freed him, her hand closed around his cock, hot and hard enough to give her the ride of her life.
Inwardly she crowed. Apparently tiny ankles and shampoo-commercial hair didn’t win every time after all.
“Yeah, you make me do bad things.” She eyed his released erection as if it were a dish of chocolate mousse topped with a dollop of whipped cream and a raspberry. “Wanna rethink that?”
“Sorry to underestimate you. You’re clearly a wild woman who likes performing for a crowd. Better?”
“Don’t always need a crowd but yeah, better. Now I’m going to earn my new reputation.”
Kelly slipped away and crouched in front of him, gripping his hard-on in both palms. He grabbed a handful of her hair, dragging her right where they both knew she ached to be.
She slid her mouth over the head of his cock and sucked lightly, smiling around him as he dropped his head back and the cords of his neck stood out in sharp relief. Darting her tongue around his width, she bathed him in saliva until her hands slipped in the moisture she’d left. She spread it around, jerking him off while she leaned down to lick his balls. The salty musk of his taste made her press her thighs together, reminding her she was very close to kneeling on the asphalt in a very expensive skirt.
“We’ll finish that inside,” he said between choppy breaths. “Get up here.”
His eyes glowed in the faint sodium lights next to the side door of her building—at least they hadn’t parked right out front—as he hauled her up and drew her leg onto his hip. “Of course you had to wear leather,” he muttered.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make it up to you by not wearing anything for a while. Sa
me goes, by the way.” She wiggled until she could tear aside her panties. And tear they did. “You’re staying tied up naked in my apartment until I’ve had my fill. Including swallowing every drop of your—”
He caught her mouth, swirling his tongue around hers in a dizzying rhythm she matched beat for beat. Without warning, he moved her into position, sliding inside her in one smooth, heart-stopping thrust. He was so thick the first stroke actually hurt, even as wet as she was. When she flinched, he shifted, changing the angle and the depth. Almost at once the grinding friction was back, twisting through her belly, tightening her nipples. Slickening the glides of his cock.
“Better?”
“Mmm.”
It was the best she could do. Her pussy clasped him snugly, her welcoming heat drawing him in to the hilt. She breathed in his air and moaned at each of his soft grunts. It was as if they were one, bound together by a shortening ripcord of pleasure.
“I feel you throbbing,” he murmured against her cheek, bearing down so her clit got some benefit from the action too.
“Oh God, that’s so good.”
She rocked her hips and he groaned, holding her as close as all their layers of clothes allowed. Her heart raced, her starving cells demanding oxygen. She inhaled deeply, drowning in the scent of their lovemaking with every breath.
Spencer again changed the angle and this time he hit the sensitive spot deep inside her pussy. Her thighs shook. “Yes, yes,” she said breathlessly.Just a little more. “Please.”
“I love it when you beg.”
He slid his tongue in her ear, simulating his movements between her legs, and she let out a frustrated moan. He knew exactly how to push her up to the peak then keep her there, writhing like the animal she’d become. The orgasm just beyond her reach taunted her, promising her ultimate ecstasy if she didn’t die first.
Kelly jerked at the sound of a door slamming and footsteps approaching on the concrete. She started to pull back but Spencer grabbed her chin and tunneled deeper. His cock hardened further, provoking a delighted cry she couldn’t stifle.
“Look at me,” he demanded. “Just me.”
She leaned back, sagging against her car as he churned in and out, his hot gaze the center of her universe. She couldn’t have looked away if she tried.
Their hips moved together in soundless unison as a car started two slots away. It zoomed away in a hurry, its owner probably already reporting the extremely lewd behavior he’d just witnessed.
“I bet he heard you crying out for me.” His erotically husky voice spurred another rush of liquid around his cock. “And he wanted you. But you belong to me, don’t you?”
“Yes. God, yes.” She couldn’t fight the truth any longer. She’d been his the first day she’d laid eyes on him in the break room. Embarrassed by the sudden dampness in her panties when he’d looked her way, she’d left without speaking. But that night alone in her bed, she’d relived the encounter and given it a much different ending. She’d come so hard, her fingers a poor substitute for the thick length inside her right now. “Even the first day I saw you I wanted you.”
“Wanted what?” he whispered.
“To fuck you.” She bowed her neck, her back arching as tendrils of lust crept through her system, all the knots inside her coming apart under the relentless onslaught. “Like this.”
“Let me feel you come, baby. Oh yeah. Just like that.”
When he drew out and drove back in, she slammed her elbows back against the car as she strained up, trying to take him as far as he could go. She contracted around him, her pussy spasming hard with the force of her release, her cries rising over the breeze. Lost in his own impending orgasm, he didn’t even try to silence them. He pumped, hips wild against hers, shooting his seed deep as she clung to him and watched his face, desperate to see every nuance.
Lying twisted beneath him against her car, she reached up to stroke his jaw, helpless to stop the emotion flooding her eyes. He didn’t tell her not to cry or wipe away her tears. Instead he lowered his lips to her cheeks and kissed them away, wordlessly stitching together the last broken parts of her heart.
“I love you,” he murmured.
It was so easy to say it now, when everything else but them had been stripped away. “I love you too.”
Epilogue
Three months later
Kelly sighed as she surveyed the empty space that surrounded her. The former shoe store had been bared to the rafters in preparation for the new tenants. Right now, the place was barren, just a shell. Soon it would be bustling with activity and filled to the brim. With people, hopefully. And books.
So many books.
Spencer came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “What a way to spend New Year’s Eve, huh?”
“Yeah. The cusp of a new year, the start of a new life.”
“You’re not about to start crying again, are you?”
She laughed, so far from crying she felt as if she could light up the whole building with her excitement. “Not even close. I want to dance. Or maybe do cartwheels. I used to be able to.”
“Now that I’d like to see. How long can you hold certain…positions?”
“You’ve seen me hold enough of them, answer that yourself.” She leaned her head to the side as he kissed her neck, lacing her fingers with his over her stomach. “We’ll have to move fast,” she said after a moment.
“I’d be happy to. Why do you wear so many damn clothes?”
She laughed again and smacked his meandering hand away from the button of her jeans. “I mean here. We’ll have to get things done quickly.”
“Well, yeah, that’s the plan. But we don’t want to rush. Everything has to be perfect.”
“It already is. Too perfect.”
Because he knew her way too well, he spun her around and tipped up her chin. “A minute ago you wanted to dance. Now you sound miserable.”
As the lump formed in her throat, she shook her head. Of course. She couldn’t just let anything be. “I’m fine. It’ll be fine.”
“Kelly.”
“I’m not going to cry,” she said and smiled at his relieved expression. “I’m just scared. The last few months have been a dream. When am I going to wake up?”
“You are awake. We both are. And if they’ve been a dream, it’s because we’ve worked our asses off to get here. We deserve this. Both of us.”
“What if—”
“What if is for tomorrow. We’re living today.” He kissed her nose. “You’re the one who made me believe we could do this. I couldn’t have walked away from the store if I hadn’t hoped to God you’d be waiting for me on the other side.”
She pressed her fingertip over his lips. “See, stuff like that will make me break my promise not to cry.”
“We’re going to make it, Kelly. We already have. Who else but us would open a bookstore in this economy? No one. Every banker we talked to said we were nuts.”
“They’re probably right.”
“But it didn’t stop us. We poured our savings into this, risked everything. Even with The Book Nook right across town, even starting from nothing with only hopes and dreams and plans, we didn’t give up. Because we’re about the books. Even as things change, people still want to read. And we’ll find a way to reach those people.” He turned her toward the glass door that still bore the name Funky Shoes. “We want to give the gift books have given us to everyone who walks through those doors. It’s not about profit margins and making a quick buck. We’re in this for the long haul, baby. And we can’t fail.”
Every time she started to get scared, he was right there, holding her up. Reminding her why they were doing this. Nail by nail, page by page, moment by moment, they would ensure nothing could shake the foundation they were beginning to build.
Right down the line.
“You know, some women might want to spend their first New Year’s as part of a real actual couple doing something couple-ish. Like going out for a fancy dinn
er and dancing. Or to a party. Not standing around in the sawdust spinning fairy tales.”
“It’s no fairy tale.”
“I know. But I love yanking your very big, very thick chain.” She patted his cock through his jeans—something he actually wore pretty often now, amazingly enough—and grinned.
“We could still go out. There’s time. I even have a tux somewhere.”
“Mmm. I’d like seeing you in a tux. And getting you out of it.” She shifted in his embrace to kiss his jaw. “Lucky for you, I’m not some women. And I couldn’t be happier if you rolled me in chocolate and licked me clean.” She tapped her chin. “On second thought…”
“We’ll do that for Valentine’s Day.” He laughed and tugged her toward the door. “But I do have something that I think you’ll like. C’mon. It’s out in the truck.”
She pretended to protest as he dragged her outside into the cold. “It’s freezing out here.”
“It’s good for you. Helps get the blood moving.”
He led her toward the parking lot, empty except for his exceptionally large pickup. He’d traded in the Acura for the truck last month, thinking it would come in handy since they were going to do as much of the rehab work on the place as they could. Considering neither of them were exactly experts in that area, Kelly considered it a damn good thing Adam had come up for Christmas and enlisted a bunch of his jock friends. He intended to stick around as long as they needed them. Which Kelly figured would be right up until opening day.
They weren’t lacking in other help either. Tony and Cale had signed on for as much manual labor as necessary. She’d forgiven Cale for picking up her PDA in the break room after he’d sheepishly apologized. He’d told her himself that he’d figured that would be a good way for Spencer to notice her—at least after Marcia had convinced him that it was. He hadn’t known Spencer had noticed her plenty even before he’d seen the list, thanks to her video session in his office.
Their hearts—all three of them—had been in the right place, even if their brains hadn’t. They were good people. And that both men seemed to hang around Marcia as if she’d spun the moon from strands of her golden hair didn’t concern her. As long as they were happy, she didn’t care what sort of thing they had going.