And he knew. She knew he did. She could see it in his face. Feel it in the touch of his body. Braced over her on those muscular arms, his biceps bulging beneath the tight stretch of his golden skin, he watched her from beneath those impossibly long eyelashes, his eyes so blue they burned, and it was like he was right there, inside her head with her.
It was such a foreign experience for her—being that closely tied with someone—that she almost started to panic. But he just gave her one of those wicked, crooked smiles and lowered his head to her ear, whispering dirty, filthy things to her, coaxing her to just give in…to give him everything.
And when it came to sex, she felt as if there wasn’t any other choice.
The chemistry or sizzle—or whatever this crazy thing was burning between them—was simply too powerful to resist. She came screaming his name and clutching at his broad, powerful shoulders, her climax shooting into another stratosphere when his lips were suddenly on hers, his husky groans filling her mouth as his release tore through him, destroying them both.
Afterward, they sprawled like shipwreck victims in the tousled bedding, their sweat-slick bodies tangled together and panting for air as they tried to catch their breath, and Natalie knew that she’d never been happier than she was in that moment.
If this is anything like what Sophie has with Chris, she thought, loving the way Sean wrapped his arm around her waist and tugged her closer, no wonder she’s always walking around with a big, beautiful smile on her face.
When they finally realized they needed nourishment, if they were going to keep up such an insane level of activity, they grabbed a quick shower together that ended with a not-so-quick fuck against the shower wall. A hard, delicious fuck, where Sean kissed her like he needed the taste and feel of her mouth more than air, his cock driving into the hot, tight clench of her body just as desperately.
Eventually, they did manage to keep their hands off each other long enough to get dressed, and he took her for brunch at a lovely cafe not far from his condo that was close enough for them to walk to. It was a gorgeous, sunny California day, the storm leaving everything smelling fresh and full of life. After a mouthwatering meal of pecan waffles with hot maple syrup, crisp bacon, and rich coffee, they walked back to his place along the beach, holding hands as they searched for seashells that had been churned up by the storm.
They laughed as they talked about such normal things—like they had during the night—each question and answer giving them more insight into the other, and it was all so…so goddamn easy. So natural. She didn’t understand how she could feel like this with him, enjoying his mind and sense of humor just as thoroughly as she enjoyed his talented, sex-god-status skill in the sack. But she did.
God, she was enthralled with every facet of the man.
As they neared the Spanish-styled condos, she refused to worry about running into Sophie or Chris, not wanting it to spoil her happiness. She told herself she was prepared to deal with the situation if they did, but would’ve been lying if she’d said she wasn’t relieved when they made it back into his condo without seeing a single soul. It was like the world had stopped just for them, just so they could enjoy themselves in this pleasure-soaked bubble for a little while longer. For just a few more stolen moments in time.
After the way Sean had watched her the entire time they’d been eating, and then during their walk, his blue eyes smoldering with hunger even when they were talking or laughing together, she wasn’t surprised that he tossed her over his shoulder the minute they were behind his locked front door. With a playful swat to her bottom that had her giggling like a naughty schoolgirl, he carried her back to his bedroom, literally tossing her into the middle of his rumpled bed.
She squealed as she bounced there in the center of the luxuriant mattress, and then again when she found herself pinned beneath his big, beautiful body. He flashed her a deliciously wicked grin, just before he caught her wrists, lifted them over her head, and pinned them against the bed.
“Again?” she asked with a smirk, lifting her brows at him.
“Again…and again,” he said in a low, velvety rumble, lowering his mouth to the side of her neck and pressing a hot, open-mouthed kiss there that made her arch and gasp. “I cannot get enough of you. Every time we fuck, it just gets better. Hotter. So fucking hot it makes me crazed. Drives me fucking mad.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” she groaned, and then everything became a blur of touch and taste and sensation as they tore each other’s clothes off, their passion-heated bodies rubbing and sliding together, hands and mouths trying to claim as much as they could. At one point, she found herself sitting on his gorgeous face, her cunt open and pressed against his avid mouth, while his midnight gaze stayed locked on hers, the blue of his eyes so dark they were nearly black with lust.
He looked hot-as-sin eating her out like that, his possessive hands digging into her round hips, pulling her tighter against his face. When he pressed his upper lip hard against her clit, and started thrusting his tongue up inside her like he was fucking her with it, she couldn’t take any more. For one terrifying moment, she could have sworn her heart stopped, and then she crashed into the mother of all orgasms, coming so hard she almost passed out, the cries spilling from her mouth so raw she sounded like she was in pain.
“Oh…Oh, God. That was awesome,” she gasped, as soon as she could manage to make her mouth form the words. “An I feel like I just won the lottery kind of awesome.”
With a hard, sexy laugh on his damp lips, he gave her drenched sex one more long, greedy lick. Then he tossed her onto her back and immediately came down over her, his knees forcing her legs farther apart, just before he rammed his massive, textured shaft so deep inside her she was pretty sure it was some kind of sexual miracle.
Then his rugged face was just above hers, his mouth and chin still slick from her orgasm, his voice a dark, husky growl when he said, “I had to get you juicy enough to take me this deep.”
“Sean!” she cried out, when his next thrust was so hard it shoved her across the bed.
“Christ, you feel good,” he panted against her open mouth, grinding against her. “So fucking good.”
Oh…oh shit! They both froze at that exact moment together, realizing why it felt so freaking amazing.
He wasn’t wearing a condom!
“You want me to stop?” He drew his head back, and studied her expression with a hooded, stormy gaze. Whatever he saw on her face had him shoving even deeper inside her, their bodies smashed together, his voice a low, graveled rasp as he said, “I’m clean, Natalie. I haven’t fucked without a condom since I started to suspect my marriage was going to shit, and I got tested immediately.”
She stared into his dark, glittering eyes, and even though she knew it was freaking madness, she heard herself say, “I’m on the Pill. So no, don’t stop. Just fuck me.”
That was the last coherent thought she had, her words destroying the last of his restraint. He went completely wild on her—or actually, they went wild on each other. She clawed at his shoulders and the powerful muscles in his back, trying to pull him closer, while he fisted his hand in the back of her hair, sank his tongue into her mouth…and fucked the everliving hell out of her.
“Jesus, Natalie. So fucking hot. You’re so fucking hot and wet and tight,” he growled, biting at her lips between the gruff phrases. “It’s like your perfect little cunt was made for me. Like it’s meant to be mine.”
She gasped, her heart flipping over in her chest. She tried to control it, but when his free hand reached for hers, and he laced their fingers together, pressing them into the tangled bedding, it just kept tumbling.
“Feel this, Nat.” He kept moving inside her, grinding his body against hers at the end of every hammering stroke to give her maximum pleasure, his dark eyes burning with raw emotion. “You have to feel what’s happening between us as strongly as I do. I know you do.”
Oh, God. She was in shock, because she never, not in a m
illion freaking years, expected to hear something so passionate and real from someone like Sean. From such a hard, rugged, impossibly sexy alpha. A man who was so brilliant and virile and impossibly gorgeous, he could have any woman he wanted, from fucking actresses to super models, he was that incredible.
She turned her head to the side, needing a moment to get her thoughts straight, and found herself staring at their linked hands. Then something inside her started to crack. She could feel the hot burn of tears building at the back of her throat, her heart in a fucking free-fall that was so hard and fast, she didn’t think she would ever be able to catch it.
Somehow, she found the courage to bring her watery gaze back to his, and heard herself whisper, “I do. I feel it.”
He smiled at her then, so heart-stoppingly perfect, and she freaking lit up inside like a fireworks display, a husky laugh on his lips as he leaned down and nipped her lower lip.
“No. Don’t close your eyes,” he groaned, when her lashes started to lower, his deep voice rougher than she’d ever heard it. “Look at me. I want to see you. I want to watch you taking me.”
Staring up at his handsome face, Natalie drank in the sight of him. He was so fucking beautiful to her. Even that massive, brutal part of him that was pounding inside her was beautiful. And, God, did he know how to use it.
Taking his hand from her hair, he hooked it behind her knee, then lifted it toward her chest. The position changed the angle of his penetration, and suddenly he was hitting that secret spot deep inside her that made everything go dark and hot and achingly sweet. She screamed as a sharp, shocking jolt of pleasure slammed into her, devastating her senses, the deep, rhythmic pulses of her orgasm pulling Sean right along with her. He came so hard it was violent, the sounds he made thick and guttural, while he spurted into her again and again, his cum so hot she could feel it.
Time spun and dipped like a kite in flight, and she wondered if she was on the verge of passing out from an orgasm after all, when he finally pulled her back to the present with the tender brush of his lips against hers. Their tongues lazily stroked and tasted, and she lifted her free hand, running her fingertips across the scratchy surface of his jaw.
He made a soft, rumbling sound of pleasure, then pressed another gentle kiss to the corner of her mouth, before lifting his head and grinning at her. Moving with care, because it had to be obvious she was a little sore, given how hard they’d been going at it, he pulled out. She let go of his hand as he sat up and knelt between her legs. His long lashes cast shadows on his cheeks as his gaze lowered to the wet, tender place where he’d been buried so hard and deep, and she flushed as she felt the thick streams of moisture slipping from inside her.
“What are you doing?” she whispered, when he placed his warm hands high on her inner thighs and swept his thumbs across the sensitive lips of her sex.
“Pushing my cum back inside you.” He flashed her a crooked smile, his eyes hot with lust and deeper, more emotional things that she was too afraid to try to name. “I’m pretty sure that’s where it wants to be.”
She felt an answering smile tug at the corner of her mouth. “Caveman.”
“With you, always.”
Always?
With one last wicked brush of his thumbs over her sex, he laid down on his side. He caught her around her waist, pulling her onto her side as well, then drew her closer, their legs tangling together as they faced each other, the sunlight streaming in through the blinds painting their passion-glazed bodies with ethereal stripes of color.
Lifting his hand, he pushed her hair back from her face, tucking it behind her ear, his smoldering gaze locked tight with hers. “I wish you wouldn’t have hidden from me for so long,” he rasped, stroking the pad of his thumb across the curve of her cheek. “I wish you would have just walked across that restaurant, taken my head in your hands, and kissed the fuck out of me the first time you ever saw me. If you’d done that, we could have been here, in this moment, months ago.”
She blinked, her breath shivering past her lips in a quiet rush.
“I want a chance, Natalie.” His blue eyes burned with determination. “And you don’t have to say anything right now. I’m not trying to pressure you. Just…believe me when I say that I want this. That I want the chance to prove to you that this is worth the risk.”
Her breath hitched in her throat, and she could only manage a feeble nod before she buried her face against his chest, her hands clutching at him, letting him know that while she might be terrified, she wasn’t going to pull away from him. He made a low sound that vibrated against her, and held her tighter, his lips brushing against the top of her head as he let her have this moment to get her thoughts straight.
God, there were no words for what this man was doing to her. And yet, as nervous as her heart was, she knew she’d never felt so alive. So needed and wanted and desired, and it was a precious, beautiful thing.
Something she didn’t want to lose.
With his fingers curled under her chin, he lifted her face up to him, his dark gaze taking her in. He gently swept his thumb beneath her left eye, stroking the shadow she knew was there. “I kept you up all night, didn’t I?”
“Not all night.” She gave him a soft smile, grateful that he’d changed the subject, since she was nowhere near ready to talk about them. About what they were doing together…and where it was headed.
“You should still try to nap for a bit,” he murmured, brushing his thumb over her cheek again in a soft, soothing stroke.
But neither of them fell asleep. Instead, they kept talking—about everything but the shocking words he’d said to her.
Instead, they chatted about things like movies and books. TV shows and cartoons. Favorite foods. Places they wanted to travel. Current affairs. She even told him about the money she was saving for the trip to Bora Bora that she’d always dreamed of taking, ever since she was a little girl and her favorite teacher had traveled there for a wedding. The photographs had captured Natalie’s eleven-year-old heart, and she’d been planning and scheming from that day forward.
That topic somehow led to Peyton, who she learned was dating a marine biologist. Unfortunately, Peyton was terrified of sharks, and so Sean didn’t see the relationship going anywhere, since the guy kept pressuring her to go out in the water with him, when his sister claimed she would rather swim in a pool full of rats than set one toe in the ocean.
As she thought about Sean and Peyton’s Tuesday night dinners, Natalie couldn’t help but shake her head at herself. All that time she’d been cursing him for being a cheater, he’d simply been having dinner with his sister. His freaking sister!
She felt so stupid for not realizing. She should have seen it—and, yeah, maybe she would have, if she hadn’t been so blinded by jealousy. It wasn’t like it would have been difficult to figure out. Peyton had never hung onto him like the others. Their dinners had been friendly, but never flirtatious. God, they’d acted like a brother and sister sharing a meal together, and she was such a tool for not seeing it.
Somehow, they eventually found their way back to the topic of her own family, and she told him about her younger brother, Jackson, who was currently visiting their father in New Hampshire. And although Jackson had a decent relationship with their dad, Natalie admitted that she rarely spoke to Matthew Richards, seeing as how she was still unable to stomach what he’d done to their family.
They even talked about how her view of men and relationships, which had already been damaged by her parents’ divorce, had taken another hit when she’d started working at Manolo’s. How watching men dine with their wives one night, and then some woman they were clearly having an affair with the next, had blackened something inside her that was already bruised. That confession had led to talk of his ex, or rather, how he dealt with her cheating, and it surprised her, how much she and Sean had in common. They’d both been hurt, and yeah, the ways had been different, but so many of the results were the same—and in a strange way, she actually
started to admire the fact that he’d taken all those women out.
Oh, it still made her jealous as hell to think about it. But at least he’d had the strength to get back out there, instead of sticking his head in the sand, the way she’d done.
And while they were doing everything they could to learn about each other in a way that went deeper than sex, there was still a constant physical aspect to the conversations. She loved that he couldn’t seem to keep his hands off her. Lying there in the tangled sheets, his hands were always on her. One moment stroking the length of her spine, then her hip, or her waist. Her ass. Her breasts. He seemed to genuinely love all the dips and curves of her figure, and for once she didn’t feel like she could afford to lose a good twenty or thirty pounds.
It could have been minutes that passed by, or even hours. Not that she cared. All that mattered was that for the first time in her adult life, Natalie was wondering what it would be like to be brave enough to open her heart to a man. To lay claim to him, and possess him, and allow him to do the same to her. To have no barriers or shields, and be vulnerable without fear, because she knew the man she’d fallen for felt just as strongly as she did. That he was just as devoted. Just as owned.
She didn’t even know how such a state-of-being could be possible. But, God, she wished that she did. Wished that she knew how to fix the broken parts of herself so that she could be that way.
Eventually, their talk eased into quiet murmurs, and she watched as Sean’s eyelids started to get heavy, then drifted closed. She smiled as she cuddled up against his chest, thinking it was kinda funny that she’d worn him out, when he startled her by saying her name.
“Yeah?” she whispered, listening to the beat of his heart.
He stroked his palm down the length of her spine, pressed a tender kiss to the top of her head, and said three quiet, husky words: “Please don’t run.”
Keeping His Promise: A When It Happens Novella, Book 2 Page 11