by Piper King
His hand slips between my wet thighs and unzips my jeans. A moment later, another zip follows. And then the head of his massive dick spreads open my pussy lips. There’s nothing slow and gentle about him now. He shoves into me, as if his need is as great as my own, as if he’s unable to wait even a second longer before feeling my walls wrap around his long length.
He groans, and he pushes me harder against the wall. There’s something animalistic in the way he moves. His thrusts are fast and hard, electrifying me. I grip his hair and hold on tight, enjoying the way he takes me as if I’m his own, as if belong to him.
Because I do.
Every thrust deepens my desire. Every grunt sends me even closer to the edge. He pounds into me, his cock filling me up and his balls knocking against my thighs. I can feel his need grow along with my own, his dick getting bigger and harder with each passing moment.
But before he lets himself go, he pulls back and looks into my eyes. There’s a flash of something there, something tender, something that speaks of more than just a hard fuck against the wall.
And then he carries me in his arms, away from the wall, before lowering me to the floor. He holds himself above me, and his eyes never leave my face. Something goes through me now. A heart-pounding thrill that has nothing to do with the sex and much more to do with the way he stares at me as if I’m the only woman in the world.
“I want to look into your eyes as you come.” He begins to thrust once again, though slower and gentler now.
“As we come,” I whisper.
And it only takes seconds for the pleasure to build once again, for my muscles to clench, and for my screams to ricochet off the walls. But the best part isn’t the orgasm. It’s the way he looks at me. As if I’m something. As if I’m someone. The only one.
20
Noah
“Well.” I grin. “That was something. I guess you didn’t come over here for help with squirrels after all.”
She narrows her eyes and swats my arm with her hand, but I know she’s not truly mad now, not like she was before. “Trust me, I wish this was some ploy to seduce you, but unfortunately, the attic squirrel situation is very much my unfortunate reality at the moment.”
“Let me just grab a few things, and we can head on over there.” I straighten my shirt, trying my best not to smirk at the lipstick stain on the sleeve. “I know how we can get rid of them.”
“There’s no we,” she says, clenching her fists by her sides.
What’s this? If I’m not mistaken, we just fucked. Hard. Like we meant it. And yet she’s still holding fast to this grudge she can’t shake.
“Look, I know I should have called, but—”
“I just need you to answer one thing first. Why did you run?” Her voices shakes. “Why did you leave? Tell me the truth.”
I push my breath out of my lungs. Why is it so hard for me to open up? It’s not like I can explain it myself. It’s just something I feel in my gut. An instinct. A way to survive. If I share with Harper these darkest, deepest parts of my soul, she has ammunition to use against me. There are already holes in my heart. I don’t need any more.
I’m not sure I can survive any more.
“We’d been drinking, and…” I start to say. Maybe I can find a way to explain my actions without letting my guard down too much. Because clearly I’d been wrong. Harper didn’t regret sleeping with me, not if she’d been this upset when I left without a word. Or she hadn’t regretted it at the time, at least. Maybe she does now.
“Start with the first one,” she says, crossing her arms over her breasts. Breasts, I can’t help but note, I would very much like to be sucking and licking right now. But instead, she’s blocking them from my view. She may not realize it, but that’s exactly what she’s doing. “When you were fixing the floor. You never explained why you disappeared that day only seconds after you were hardcore flirting with me. I don’t want to think that whatever is going on between us is some kind of joke to you, but it’s hard to think otherwise. Just promise me that this is real.”
“It’s not a joke, Harper.” I close my eyes and sigh, readying myself for the pain of what I’ll say next. “That day…it was the anniversary of my parents’ deaths. I went to the cemetery. With Luke.”
Her mouth widens into an O. My confession is not what she expected. A part of me wants to take back the words, to hide them within the deepest crevices of my heart. They’re just hanging there out in the open space between us as she stares into my eyes. Something within her flickers. Pity. This is why I didn’t want to tell her in the first place. I don’t want Harper to feel sorry for me.
I don’t want anyone to. It’s my burden to bear.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” She fidgets with the ends of her sleeves. “I didn’t remember the date they died.”
“Of course you wouldn’t.” I laugh, harsh and broken and empty. “There was no reason for you to know.”
“You could have told me,” she says. “I would have understood. I’ve lost someone, too.”
She means her grandmother, of course. Or at least I think so. She’s never mentioned her parents or any other family members, so I don’t know who else has gone missing from her life. Maybe a lot of people. Maybe only the one. But regardless of that, I bet not a single one of them was her fault.
“They were looking for me.” My voice cracks. “We got in a fight. About something totally lame. It was dark and raining, and I swerved out of the driveway. Fast. Careless. They were scared I was too upset and would end up dead in a ditch. Instead…”
I squeeze my eyes tight. I can’t talk about this. Why the hell am I telling Harper about that night? I clomp my mouth shut and bottle up my thoughts and my feelings until the bile no longer rises in my throat. One thing’s for sure, I could really use a drink right now.
“It wasn’t your fault.” Harper steps in close and places soft palms against my chest. Her touch makes me want to run, just as I’ve run over and over again. It’s intimate. Almost too intimate. And certainly more intimate that our fuckfest against the wall. Her touch is about more than sex. It’s about more than concern. It’s about…
Her eyes are deep, deep pools where I could get lost. And I feel myself fall.
“Love.” The word tiptoes off my tongue before I even realize it’s there. It has been hiding inside me, ready to sneak out when I least expect it.
Her eyes become two blue beams of light, piercing right through my armor. “Love? You mean you love them? Of course you do. I’m sure you always will. Death can take others away from us, but it can never steal our love for them.”
“That’s not what I mean.” And the feeling builds upon itself, multiplies, just by listening to her speak in a way that means she understands the pain and loss I’ve felt all these years. It’s something that not even Luke or Jack have put words to themselves. “I mean…”
She shakes her head, confused but patient. With a slight smile, she steps in even closer, her hands still pressed against my chest. Surely she can feel my heartbeat. It’s hammering against my ribcage, so hard it feels as if it’s trying to pound it’s way out of my skin. This closeness, this softness in her eyes. It says far more than words ever could. She knows what I’m trying to say. I can see it in the way she looks up at me, quiet, calm, waiting.
And what’s more, she doesn’t look repulsed.
On the contrary, there’s something eager and hopeful about her expression.
“I think I love you,” I finally spit out. Not think. Know. But this is as much as I can manage. For now.
21
Harper
Noah Hall has just told me that he thinks he loves me. The world tips underneath my feet, and I press my hands against his chest to keep myself from falling over. Because that’s how his confession makes me feel. Like I could tip to the side and fall flat on my face.
“What?” I breathe. “You…what?”
I realize this is probably not the reaction he was expecting. Or h
oping for. But it’s all I can manage because my mind is fucking blown. It’s not every day a guy confesses his love. I’ve certainly never been told. And Noah is the last person I expected to say these words to me. Of all the men in all the world, it’s him. My enemy. My nemesis.
The only person who makes my heart beat hard.
“Forget it,” he says, turning away. My hands fall to my sides, and I stare at his back. Underneath his tight t-shirt, his muscles ripple as he begins to walk away. His shoulders sag. His legs are stiff. Even though we’ve only slept together twice, I feel as if I could conjure each and every inch of him from memory. The way he smells, the way he tastes, the way each ridge of his chest tenses when he moves.
He thinks I’m turning him down. My shock at his confession comes across like a rebuttal. But that’s not it. Not at all. But I can see why it might seem that way to him, like I can’t comprehend those kind of feelings passing between us.
“Noah, please wait.” My heart shudders in my chest. Noah has put words to something I’ve only just recently started admitting to myself, let alone anyone else. It’s all so quick, so sudden.
But it doesn’t feel wrong.
He pauses and casts a glance over his shoulder, the darkness of his scruff doing its best to hide the emotion on his face. No word comes from his lips. He just stops and stares at me, waiting, wondering, hoping.
If I want this—and I do—I’m going to have to push past my fears and say what he needs to hear.
I take a step forward. “I feel the same way.”
His entire body shudders.
“It’s hard for me to admit, because look at us.” I raise my hands by my sides and let out some nervous laughter. “We’ve been enemies for as long as I can remember. All this time I thought you were making fun of me, that I was some joke, some lame girl who you liked to prod with sharp, pointy sticks.”
Noah twists toward me, so I continue.
“It’s hard to imagine you would feel that way about me.” I shake my head and give him a slight smile. “I mean, I practically convinced myself that the night in the snow was another one of your stupid games. I didn’t want to assume the worst, but it was hard when you disappeared the next morning without saying a word.”
“I thought you’d wake up and regret it. You were drunk, after all,” he finally says. “And I didn’t want to see the repulsed look on your face when you realized you’d fucked me.”
“Even if it was a one-night stand, I never would have regretted it.” My hands slide up his chest to rest on his masculine shoulders. “It was amazing. Best sex I’ve ever had.”
“Well,” he says with quirked lips. “The only sex you’ve ever had.”
“That’s not true.” I grin. “I just got laid about fifteen minutes ago.”
He arches his eyebrows. “And you’re telling me that wasn’t your best fuck?”
“Nothing can top the first one, though this was pretty great, too.” I slide my fingers across the skin of his neck and smile even wider when he shivers in response. I love that my touch alone can drive him wild.
“Well, that just won’t do,” he says in a faux-stern voice. “We can’t have you believing it won’t get better than that. The best is yet to come, sweetheart. I can guarantee you that.”
“Then I guess we better get started, shouldn’t we?”
It’s only been a few minutes since we slid back into our clothes but already I’m eager for more. Of course, that probably has to do with the fact we both admitted our love to each other. His words have ramped up a need inside me, one I’m sure will never extinguish. I’ll always want more of Noah Hall.
A lazy smile spreads across his face and he slips his hands around my butt cheeks, yanking me against his rock hard chest. “That we should.”
My pussy begins to ache as I anticipate the feel of his massive cock expanding my walls and filling me with his juice. But just as Noah is about to lower his lips to mine, his cell phone blares from his pocket. He shakes his head, dipping his mouth to my neck. His tongue laps against my skin, sending tremors of pleasure through my body. And the phone continues to ring. Again and again until Noah pulls back with a frustrated huff.
“I’m going to turn my phone off so this asshole will stop calling.” He yanks out his phone, but I place a hand on my arm to stop him.
“Answer it,” I say. “Might be important.”
“It’s Luke.” He shakes his head. “It can wait. And what can’t wait is my cock.”
“Just answer it, Noah,” I say as the ringtone begins all over again. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Frowning, he taps the phone and holds it up to his ear. As he listens, his face clouds over, his frown getting deeper and deeper with each passing beat. He listens for a minute more, and then he clicks off. A sigh expels from his throat.
“Everything okay?” I ask, even though it’s clear that everything is very much not.
“I’m supposed to be meeting with some clients today, and I may have missed one.” He gives me a sheepish grin. “I got a little distracted by something.”
“Shit, Noah. I’m sorry.” The last thing I want to do is screw up Noah’s business. “What are you going to do?”
“It’s nothing to worry about. I can reschedule” He slides his arms back around me and drops a kiss on my neck. “Now where were we?”
“No.” I place my hands on his chest and shake my head. “You’re officially cut off until you get your meetings taken care of.”
“First, I need to complete this particular meeting right here.” He taps the button on my jeans and begins to pry it open. It takes every ounce of self-control for me to step back away from him. As much as I’m aching for Noah Hall, now is not the time. He has meetings. I have squirrels. Something has to be done about both of these things, sooner rather than later.
“Trust me, I want nothing more than to rip your clothes off again, but we both have things to do.” I push up onto my tiptoes and plant a soft kiss on his lips, my eyelids fluttering shut at the moan I feel rising up inside me. But I hold strong, pulling away and putting space between our bodies. “You take care of your meetings, and I’ll take care of my squirrels.”
Definitely not a sentence I ever thought I’d say.
“I’m helping you with the squirrels, Harper,” he says. “Isn’t that why you came here?”
“No, I came here because I’m in love with you,” I say.
Noah’s entire face lights up in an expression of pure happiness, something I’ve never seen on him before. “Please never stop saying that to me, Harper Harrison. Because I swear to god, I could die a happy man right now.”
“I never will,” I whisper, smiling. “And because of that, I want you to go to your meetings.”
“But because of that,” he answers in an equally soft voice. “I want to help you with your ridiculous squirrels.”
“Seems we have a dilemma,” I say.
“We’ll just have to do both.” He points at me and then at himself. “A team. Taking on the world. What do you say?”
My smile is on full wattage. “Let’s do it.”
22
Noah
It’s Friday morning, and Harper flutters about like a nervous butterfly. Why a butterfly? Because she’s as beautiful, as unique, and as precious as one. We got the squirrels out of the attic with some humane traps and some tasty cheese, so the grand opening is steaming forward without a hitch.
Well, that would be a lie. There were a lot of hitches in getting to this point, but Harper’s made it happen. With a little help. And I can’t say I hate the fact that I have been instrumental in the process, though I know without a doubt that she would have pulled through without me.
After we set the traps, she went with me to my meetings, and her bright and sunny smile smoothed over any wrinkles I’d caused by being late. Quotes were given, contracts were signed, and Luke grudgingly told me I’d somehow managed not to screw things up too terribly.
That was a
win, in and of itself.
“You’re going to wear holes in the floor if you keep pacing like that, Harper,” I say as I watch Harper go from one end of the entrance lobby to the other.
She stops and gives me a look, one that I’m very much acquainted with. It’s the kind of stare she used to give me back when she hated me. Though, apparently, she never really hated me the way I always thought.
If only one of us had come forward about our feelings sooner, we could have saved ourselves a lot of fucking heartache.
“Stop it,” she says. “That’s not funny. No more floors getting ruined by crazy squirrels.”
“Everything’s going to be fine.” I hook my finger under her chin and kiss her gorgeous strawberry-scented lips. “You’re going to knock them dead.”
“I certainly hope not,” she whips back. “That would result in a terrible review on the Hotel Deals website.”
“Deep breaths.” I say, dropping my hands onto her shoulders. “You can do this.”
She takes a deep breath in through her nose and out her mouth. Even though it’s a classic move and one intent on calming someone down, something about the way Harper’s mouth parts is sensual and erotic. It makes me want to lift her onto the desk, rip her hose in half, and drive my cock inside her, screwing her until she no longer knows what year it is.
“I know that look.” She smiles, momentarily forgetting the opening, her nerves, and everything else. Which had been my entire plan to begin with. “Was this morning not enough to satisfy you?”
“Sweetheart, I’m insatiable when it comes to you.” I slip my hand underneath her silk shirt and tease her nipple. “I could have you once an hour, every hour, all day long, and I’d still want more.”
The clock chimes. It’s opening time. Groaning, Harper pulls away. But that smile of hers still spreads across her face. With two small steps, she makes it to the door and flips the sign from closed to open. And then she waits, breath held in her throat.