by Piper King
Turns out, I was wrong about the location but right about everything else. Her tiny little cottage is packed to the brim with blankets, books, and magazines. A few mugs are scattered around the room, as if she’s been too busy to clear them up. The best word for Harper’s place is quaint. And it suits her.
“Would you like something to drink?” she asks as she begins to fidget with the ends of her sleeves. My sleeves. She’s still wearing my shirt, and it’s large on her petite body, in the way that men’s shirts usually are on girls. It looks incredibly sexy, especially because the fidgeting means she’s nervous. And if she’s nervous, then…well, she must be thinking about what comes next.
I move closer and take her trembling hands in mine. “I don’t want something to drink. Unless you do.”
She shakes her head. “No. I’m okay. Pretty sure I had enough whiskey tonight to last for weeks.”
Despite the fact that everything inside me wants to rip her clothes off in an intense whirlwind of passion, something in her voice makes me pause.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I ask softly. “I can sleep on the couch if you’d feel more comfortable with that.”
She moves toward me, and her soft hand slides up my chest to rest on my neck. My body becomes tense, rock-like and buzzing with electricity. Her fingers flutter against my skin, and I swallow hard despite my will to stay calm and strong. How have I lived so long without being touched like this?
“I don’t want you to sleep on the couch,” she whispers. “And I definitely want to do this. I’m just nervous, Noah. I’ve tried so hard to bottle up the way I feel about you. For years. I’m scared of what might happen if I finally let it out.”
I take her face between my hands and drop my forehead to hers, breathing in her sweet skin. “You don’t have to be scared. Not of me.”
“It’s not even of you. It’s of this.” She pushes up onto her tiptoes and kisses me softly on the lips. “And of this.” Her mouth moves to my neck. “And especially of this.” Now her hand cups my hard cock. Even though my jeans, her touch drives me wild.
I groan. “You don’t need to be afraid of my dick, Harper. It wants nothing more than to give you the greatest pleasure of your fucking life and put a smile on that pretty little face of yours.”
“Then put a smile on my face.”
13
Harper
Noah lifts me from the floor and carries me into the bedroom. I’d half-expected him to toss me onto the floor and slam his dick into me without even a hint of foreplay. That’s how intense his gaze was when I rubbed my hand against his bulge. His extremely large bulge, I might add.
Instead, he carefully lowers me onto the bed and drops a kiss onto my lips. Soft, tender, sweet. It’s the total opposite of the kiss we had in the bar, where we’d practically dry-humped right there in front of everyone. I’d been mortified, yet thrilled, turned on, aroused. He wanted me so badly he didn’t care who saw what.
So, I’m not quite sure how to take this different side of him.
There are a lot of words I can use to describe Noah Hall. Some of my favorites in the past have been loud, careless, brash, irritating. He has a devil-may-care attitude and fuck the consequences. I’m beginning to think all that has been for show. A way to protect himself, though from what I don’t know.
“I want to see your body.” He eases on top of me, holding himself up with fisted hands on either side of my head. “I want to taste every inch of you. And I want to make you come so many times that you’ll be satisfied for days.”
His words thrill me. I’ve never had a man talk dirty to me like this. Hell, I’ve never even had a man make me come. My hands have done all the work in the past, and my entire body hums with the anticipation of feeling a tongue lapping between my thighs. And not just any tongue. His tongue. The tongue I’ve dreamed about, I’m no longer ashamed to admit.
In my quietest of moments, I’ve laid on this very bed fantasizing about Noah Hall, about his dick, about his tongue, about his rough and gentle hands. I pressed my fingers between my wet folds and sighed, letting my imagination get the better of me. And I told myself that it didn’t mean anything, that I still hated him, that it was just a way to get myself off when I felt particularly frustrated from a stressful day.
But now I’m finally admitting to myself that it was far more than that.
I fantasized about him because I wanted him. Want him.
Ache for him.
So much so that my panties are full of my desire and my juices leak onto my thighs.
“Then, you better get started.” I spread open my legs and wrap one thigh around his waist.
He leans into me and steals hot kisses across my chest, his deft hands lifting my shirt over my head. My skin is abuzz, my body humming. My senses feel ten times more heightened than they usually do. He unclasps my bra, and then his mouth is on my breasts, and oh my god, I could scream out in ecstasy just from this.
His tongue teases my nipple, sliding and slipping against its hard, erect mound. How can this alone feel so impossibly good?
With a frenzy I didn’t know I had, I reach down to his jeans and fumble with his belt. I need it off. I need his cock. I want him inside me now.
“Is someone in a hurry?” He pauses, his lips seductively close to my nipples. He gazes up at me from between my breasts, and it’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
“Oh my god, yes,” I say in a whisper. “The ache is so bad I think I might explode.”
“Oh, you’re going to explode all right.” He moves his hand to his belt and helps me unbuckle it before standing and sliding off his jeans.
I gasp. I’ve never seen a dick before, not up close. I didn’t know they could be quite this…big.
“Your turn.” He removes my panties and tosses them onto the floor.
I’m naked. One-hundred percent naked. Before now, the only person to see me naked was…well, me.
And now I’m spread open in front of Noah Hall, and it makes me drip even more with desire, especially when I see the appreciative look in his eyes.
“You’re so fucking sexy.” He climbs back on top of me. “I could spend hours ravishing your body.”
His words send tingles along my skin.
“You’re the sexy one.” I drag my fingers along the ridges of his stomach, relishing in each dip around his abs, letting my hand linger on the carved V leading down to his very, very hard cock. It’s so hard it’s bulging, clearly eager to be inside me.
It makes me feel alive, confident, powerful.
In fact…
With a smile, I flip him over. He’s heavy and huge, but he’s not putting up a fight, so it makes it easy for me to pin him on the bed. His eyes widen, and a delicious smile spreads across his lips. I can see that I’ve surprised him, but in the best possible way.
“Well, well, well,” he murmurs. “Do what you want with me, Harper. Anything you want.”
Even though I’ve never done this before, I’m not a prude, and I know how this works. I lift my hips and drag my hand across the length of his cock, from the base all the way to the pink, swollen head. I can already feel his juices spilling out of him, his pre-cum coating my hand.
“You’re driving me crazy, woman,” he groans and shifts his cock even closer. “I’ve wanted you for so fucking long, and now you’re teasing me so bad.”
I lick my lips and straddle him, guiding his head closer to my aching pussy. “Does that mean I shouldn’t stop here?”
“Fuck no.” He lifts his hips, and the tip of him brushes against my wetness, making me shudder. “Never stop.”
And then he enters me, my slick walls expanding to take him in. A million sensations pass through me at once. The way I slide against him. The way our hips join as one. The way his eyes burn through me. I grind against him, and he hits the very back of me, causing me to drop back my head and moan so loud, my voice echoes in my ears.
“You feel so fucking good.” He mee
ts my hips with his own, and I ride on top of him. His eyes lock on my breasts and the way they bounce with each thrust of his dick. With a moan, I press my hands against his chest so I can grind harder and faster and deeper. I’m wild with desire, bucking on him like he’s a bull I’m desperate to ride.
My fingernails drag down his skin, leaving marks behind them. It’s evidence of my need and my arousal and the overwhelming pleasure that builds so fast—too fast—for me to handle.
Before I understand what’s happening, I’m screaming out his name, riding him harder and harder until my entire body is engulfed by spasms of joy. Sweet, delicious spasms that leave me breathless, panting, and dripping with sweat. And at the sound and feel of my pleasure, Noah isn’t far behind. He empties his seed inside me as his cock hums between my legs.
It’s pure, exquisite bliss.
And I never want it to end.
14
Noah
My eyelids feel like golfballs, and my mouth is full of ash. Groaning, I pry open my eyes and blink hard at the bright floodlight shining on my face. But it’s not a floodlight. It’s a window, and a bright morning sun beams in from a cloudless winter sky.
The world tips underneath me as I try to put fragments of thoughts into the right place. Mugs on a bedside table that isn’t mine. A wool blanket draped across my naked chest. As well as long and flowing hair that is definitely not mine. No, the gorgeous hair belongs to Harper Harrison, who is just as naked as I am, her full breasts pressed against my side.
Shit. I almost jump out of the bed. What the hell did I do last night?
Well, I mean, there’s only one logical conclusion. Harper and I banged. But my fuzzy head can’t quite figure out how the fuck that happened. Me and Harper? Last thing I remember is luring her out for a drink. We had some shots of whiskey, I remember that. And then there’d been some laughter. Some flirtation.
The memories begin to flicker in, faint at first before becoming full color.
I practically confessed my undying love to her at one point.
Shit, shit, shit.
The problem I see with this scenario is not that Harper and I fucked. It’s that I was a dumb enough idiot to do it when we were both hammered. And as shocking as I’m finding this situation, I can’t even imagine what her reaction will be when she wakes up. People do dumb stuff when they’re drunk. Stuff they’d never do sober.
And now I don’t know if she meant it or if she was too drunk to care.
Will she run away screaming? Will she slap me in the face?
I close my eyes. I can’t bear the thought of seeing the horror on her face when she realizes what we’ve done.
That would rip what’s left of my heart into shreds.
I need to get out of here.
Because one thing’s for sure. I might suck in most aspects of life, but running from fear of pain is the one thing I’ve gotten really fucking good at.
15
Harper
When I wake up, Noah Hall is nowhere to be seen, and I try not to jump to the worst conclusion imaginable. There could be a number of rational explanations for why he left me alone in bed. Maybe he got a call, and there’s an emergency. Something happened down at his shop. Or maybe he went to scrounge up some breakfast, though nowhere in town will be open yet, not until the roads have been cleared.
But I’m sure there’s a good reason…
I have to admit, I did wake up with a bit of a shock. It had been a whiskey-fuelled night, and I’d let down my guard in a way I wouldn’t have if I’d been sober. Now Noah knows exactly how I feel about him. He could hold it over me if he wants to, but I don’t think he will.
As long as he has a good explanation for his disappearing act this morning.
After I shower, I hear the thunk of hammer on wood while I’m towel-drying my hair. My spirits lift at the sound. There’s my explanation. Noah didn’t run off, as I’d feared. He’s in the bed and breakfast finishing off the broken floorboards. With a smile, I grab my coat and boots and stomp out into the fresh snow. It’s a good two feet of white beauty, and the crisp air feels ripe with possibility.
Sure, last night was a drunken one-night-stand in a sense. But I can’t help but hope it will turn out to be so much more. The sex was pretty mind-blowing. I’ve certainly never had so many orgasms in a row, and the way he moved his hips…I definitely wouldn’t mind experiencing that again. And again. And again.
Not to mention I really like the side of him he finally let me see. He’s different than he appears on the surface, and now that I’ve seen behind the curtain, I want to see even more. All of him.
I knock the snow off my boots and trudge up the stairs toward the attic, ready to open up and tell Noah that I want nothing more than to spend some more time with him. Maybe we can even christen the new floorboards in the most sizzling way imaginable.
But when I reach the top of the stairs, it isn’t Noah Hall I find nailing the last piece of wood in place.
It’s his brother. It’s Luke.
My heart drops to the bottom floor of the building. “What are you doing here? Where’s Noah?”
“Morning, Harper.” Luke glances up from where he squats by a very neatly-arranged toolbox. He looks guarded and solemn, but that’s just how Luke always comes across. It’s rare I’ve ever seen the guy crack a smile. “Noah’s at home, nursing a hangover. Apparently, you two had a little too much fun at Bar Wilde last night.”
My face flames, and suddenly I wonder just how much the town has already heard about our barstool antics. Which means I have no idea what to say.
“Anyway, I’ll be finishing up the job here. I’m actually almost done. Give me half an hour, and you’re all set.” Luke turns back to his tools, like the conversation is over, but I need way more information than that.
“So, you picked him from the guest house this morning?” If Luke didn’t know before that we’d slept together, he does now. But I figure it’s the only logical conclusion someone could jump to at this point. We were on top of each other in the bar, and then we left. Not hard to put the puzzle pieces together.
“Nope,” Luke says. “Sounds like he walked home.”
He walked home? “But, that’s like two miles. In the snow.”
“Three point two miles.” Luke sighs. “Listen, Harper. I don’t know what’s going on between you two, and I wish I could help you out, but you’re going to have to take this up with him. He has the answers to whatever questions you have. Unfortunately, I rarely know what’s going on in my brother’s head.”
“I can’t believe he walked home.” The hope I felt in my chest only moments before deflates like an old, soggy balloon. And is quickly replaced with anger. If Noah woke up with a hangover and needed to get home, fine. But he didn’t say goodbye. He didn’t say anything at all. He stole out of the house while I slept, desperate enough to get away from me that he walked the entire way home.
The truth hits me like a brick. Noah Hall and I will never be together.
He’s given me a punch in the gut one too many times.
16
Noah
“Morning, Noah. You’re here early,” Luke says when he rocks into the shop five minutes after I arrive. Usually I’m the late one. Though he’s not really late. I’m just here early. My house felt far too empty, far too quiet. I need to do something with my hands to keep my mind off Harper Harrison. Or else I’ll drive myself crazy from wanting.
Wanting her lips, wanting her ass, wanting her everything.
“Thought I’d get a head start on this wine rack Roman asked for.” I pat the work table and give him a half-hearted smile. “You, uh, get Harper all sorted out for her opening tomorrow?”
Luke slows in his methodical routine of opening the store. A sign flips over. The dim lights brighten. He seems to be weighing his words when all I asked was a pretty straightforward yes or no question. “The attic is fixed, yes.”
“Then, what’s the problem?” Because there must be a
problem. Luke doesn’t have a wide variety of expressions, but I’ve learned over the years how to spot the most microscopic of changes. In this instance, his eyebrows are furrowed slightly more than they usually are. Just slightly.
“Jack takes charge of a lot of the business, but we own this place three ways. Evenly.” Luke grabs his tool belt and tightens it around his waist. “So, I can’t really order you around, regardless of how much I’d like to sometimes.”
My own eyebrows furrow now. “Get to the point, Luke.”
He sighs, something he does a lot, like the very act of my existence is a thorn in his side. “Did you ever consider for even one moment that it might be a bad idea to sleep with a client? Someone who is paying us to do work for her?”
“About that.” I raise a finger in the air. “I’m not charging her for the work we’ve done.”
“You’re not…” Luke closes his eyes and rubs a hand against his eye. “Noah. You can’t just go around offering free services to girls just because you want to fuck them. If I’d known you weren’t going to charge her, I would have used you for something else. Things have been going better lately because of the development contract, but you know as well as I do that we’re in a transition phase. Every single thing we do right now matters.”
I feel scolded, like he only sees me as some pesky little brother. It reminds me of how things used to be, back when we were young, back when we still had Mom and Dad, back when I wasn’t the man I’ve become. Empty.
“She can’t afford it. Not right now. I was just trying to help out a friend.” I lay my palms flat on the work table and meet his gaze. “You’d do the same, and don’t tell me you wouldn’t.”
“A friend?” Luke lifts his eyebrows and shakes his head. “You’d call Harper Harrison an actual friend of yours?”