She nodded. “I don’t want to stop.” She inched backward on the bed until she reached the pillows, then held out her arms to him.
He crawled over her body, eager to explore, but willing to take each step as slowly as she dictated. Kneeling above her, he kissed her again, a slow, sensual claiming, while one hand toyed with the buttons of her shirt. He opened the top one and let his fingers roam down to the next one. Each time he opened a button, she made a small sound in the back of her throat that arrowed right to his growing erection. “If you keep doing that, I’m going to lose control,” he warned.
She reached up to tug his T-shirt out of the waistband of his jeans and ran her fingers over his abs. “I don’t have a problem with that.”
He would have fallen upon her then, like a beast, taking everything he wanted, but he held himself back. He still didn’t believe she was as ready as she said she was. Was she trying to prove something to herself? Pretty soon, it wouldn’t matter. He wouldn’t be able to reason with himself anymore, and if she decided then that she was making a mistake, it would be too late.
He lowered himself to her, and she spread her legs to cradle his hips between her thighs. Heaven. Even with two layers of denim between them, this was the sexiest thing ever. He felt like a teenager, making out behind closed doors. He tangled his hands in her hair and looked into those beguiling eyes of hers. The green had shaded to deep, chocolate brown in the dim light of his bedroom, and all he saw in the glittering depths was her desire for him. “I’m going to strip you down, layer by layer, and then I’m going to touch you everywhere.”
She shivered, and goose bumps rose on her belly when he placed his hand there just above the sexy button fly of her own jeans. “Everywhere? Promise?”
“God, Bailey, you’re killing me. I’ve never been so turned on in my life. Are you sure about this?”
She shifted onto her side and pushed him onto his back, moving with such force he thought for a split second she might have changed her mind and was dumping him off the bed. “How many times and how many ways to I have to say it? Matt Kelso, I’m so hot for you right now, I could melt a hole through this bed. If you don’t make love to me immediately, I will die.”
He held back his smirk. “But are you sure?”
She shrieked and dove in to bite his neck and his earlobe. In a second she was on top of him, straddling his hips. She pulled off her open shirt and reached behind her to unhook her bra. That followed her shirt to the floor, and with a smoldering glance that had him ready to drool, she guided his hands to her breasts.
“Do you need me to tell you what to do next, or are you going to get on with this promise to strip me down and touch me all over?”
“I…ah…I think I can handle it from here.” He knew exactly what to do, and from here on in it would be nothing but green lights.
* * * *
Bailey’s mind blanked the moment Matt flipped her onto her back. She’d pushed all her worries to a far corner of her brain and decided to let her body call the shots tonight. Not a single coherent word left her lips for the next half hour. All she did was sigh when Matt pulled her shoes off and slid her jeans down her legs. She moaned when he explored beneath her sexy pink panties and arched her back to lift her hips off the bed so he could take those off too.
She bit her lip when she sloughed off his jeans and T-shirt and freed his erection, and she licked her lips while he put on a condom and settled his perfectly toned body over hers.
“Oh, Matt…oh, God…” She gasped when he thrust inside her for the first time. Taking his length sent a shock wave through her too-long-unused body. God, how she’d missed this—not just sex but intimacy. Lying in bed, connected to someone, feeling another heartbeat beneath her fingers, hearing someone else’s breath in her ears…the sensations overwhelmed her to the point that she could barely breathe.
“Are you all right?” he whispered, his voice coarse with emotion as he held himself still. “Did I hurt you?”
“No, no…oh…” She dug her nails into his back and wrapped her legs around him. “I don’t ever want to let go. You feel so good…”
He made a sound that told her she did too. And when he began to move, her world tilted. She hadn’t even imagined this kind of pleasure in over a year. God, it’s been so long! Do I even remember how to do this?
“I’m a little rusty…” she said, avoiding his gaze for a second. “I may not be…oh…”
“No rust there,” he said with his lips against her throat. He kissed and nipped and rocked them together in a rhythm that had her panting his name. “You know what to do…you know how to move. Bailey, you’re perfect.”
She clutched at him, senseless with need. Every muscle in her body tightened, winding up higher and higher as her orgasm built. “Matt…Matt…please…”
“Please what? You don’t want me to finish too soon, do you?” He wrapped his arms around her, and together they rolled until she was on top. The new angle created a different sensation, filling her until she thought she’d burst. “Move your hips…” He guided her, slowly at first, then increasing speed until she couldn’t think, could barely see.
Beneath her, he let out a sharp yell, and his muscles went hard as rock. She fell across his chest, lost in her own climax and completely sated. Together they lay panting for so long, she had to wonder if time had stopped.
“If that’s you rusty, I don’t think I could survive you after you got back on your game,” he said finally.
“No worries. I died and went to heaven. I’m done.” She sighed and slithered off of him to lie beside him.
He looked worried. “You mean just once, and that’s it?”
She nodded, trying to maintain a serious face. “Let’s face it, there’s no way we can top that. Why even try?”
“Oh…baby, I can top that. You wait and see.”
And he did.
Chapter Ten
“You are the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen,” Matt said before running his lips down the side of Bailey’s throat. She stood at his kitchen counter, piling cold cuts onto a sandwich roll. She wore nothing but his white button-down shirt, which just about covered her perfect ass. The shirt was hers now. He’d decided she would have to wear it every time she came to his apartment, assuming he ever let her leave.
She topped the sandwich and leaned back in his embrace, wrapping her arms around his where they circled her waist. “You’re talking to the sandwich, aren’t you?”
Chuckling, he reached around her for the food. “Uh-huh… Come here, gorgeous…I’m going to bite you so hard…”
She smacked his hand. “This sexy sandwich is mine. Get your own.”
“Fine. I’ll have you, then.”
She screamed when he bit her shoulder, and struggled seductively while he pulled the shirt aside to take a bigger bite. “Ow…all right. If you’re ravenous, have the sandwich.”
“Too late. You taste better.” He spun her around, pushed her against the kitchen counter, and kissed her breathless. If he never ate again, that would be fine, as long as he had her to nibble on.
“If we’re going to do again what we did before, we need nourishment.” She maneuvered around in the small space he allotted her and sliced the sandwich in two with a kitchen knife. “Half and half for now. Later we should go get some protein shakes, vitamins, maybe B12 shots.”
He helped himself to half the sandwich. “Are you trying to tell me I wore you out?”
“I told you, it’s been a while for me. That kind of sustained aerobic activity takes a lot out of a girl.”
They stood facing each other, nibbling their half sandwiches, her in his shirt, him in his jeans and nothing else. Nothing had ever felt more natural and perfect to him. This was how he wanted every night to be. “I was taking it easy in there…you’re going to have to build up some resistance so you can keep up.”
She feigned a long-suffering sigh. “You mean like working out?”
“I’m afraid so. Pus
h-ups…squats…free weights.”
“All that before sex?”
“No. During.” He smacked her sweet butt. “Endurance, sweetheart, that’s the name of the game around here.”
She rolled her eyes. “Good Lord. Can’t I just lie there and let you do whatever you want to me?”
His body responded to that suggestion, and he let out a low groan. “That works for me. Let’s start now.” He took her sandwich from her and set it on the counter.
She grabbed it back. “After dinner. I’m still starving.”
“Women. Give them a sandwich and that’s all they want.” He wrapped his arms around her again and nuzzled her neck. “All kidding aside, my sumptuous little strumpet…are you good with all of this? We moved pretty fast tonight.”
She met his gaze, eyes sparkling. “I’m actually shocked by how okay I am with all this. I was afraid I might regret it afterward.”
“Now you tell me?”
“But I don’t. Not for a second. I needed this. I’m done acting like what happened between me and Dan was my fault somehow and that I have to relearn how to live because of it. I want you, Matt. Whatever this is between us…I’m in. As long as we’re going to be honest with each other, one hundred percent, then I’m not afraid of anything.”
He kissed her. “You know you don’t have to worry about me lying or cheating on you. That’s not me. If we’re together, we’re together. No one else is in the middle of that.”
She reached up to run her thumb over his lower lip. “Then I’m definitely okay with all this.”
* * * *
Bailey wished she could have stayed with Matt all night, but she couldn’t leave Barkley alone until morning, so well after midnight she had Matt drive her home. Saying good-bye at her door was the hardest thing she’d done in a long time. She’d already gotten used to the feel of his arms around her, and she wasn’t sure how well she’d sleep without him next to her. She wanted to tell him that but decided it was too soon. Despite everything she’d confessed in his kitchen, there was still some lingering doubt that she was doing the right thing. She had to keep her wits about her and not lose herself in this shiny new love affair too quickly.
Once inside, she sat on the floor with Barkley, the dog’s huge head in her lap, and stroked his soft ears until he began to snore contentedly. All the while she thought of Matt and how she’d vowed to herself she would be more careful with her heart after Dan.
“You can’t fall in love with someone over a weekend,” she told the snoozing dog. Just because her heart raced every time she thought of him and just because the memories of his touch surrounded her, permeated every breath she took, didn’t mean she was in love with him. She was enamored of the idea of being in love again, of having someone.
She thought of his skillful hands on her body, and she moaned.
Barkley opened one big brown eye and lifted his head. His curious expression made her question her feelings even more. “You can’t fall in love that fast, Barks. I’m not in love…yet, but God, it would be so easy with him. I have to take it slow, at least in my head.” After parading around his apartment in nothing but his shirt, after throwing him on the bed and showing him just how much energy she still had left after their first erotic romp, she certainly couldn’t fool herself into thinking she was taking it slow physically, but there was no reason why her head couldn’t be in one place and her body somewhere else… Well, that didn’t sound right, but the idea was clear. She would sleep with Matt…again and again and again. Hmmm. But she’d keep her brain in gear and accept the relationship for what it was. Fun for now and maybe something more in the future. No rush, no demands, no questions asked of herself or of him.
She kissed Barkley’s furry head and ruffled his fur before climbing to her feet and heading for the shower. “I’m back in the real world, Barks,” she told him as he walked in a tight circle looking for a comfortable position to go back to sleep. “No more fantasy romances for me. It’s all real from here on out.”
* * * *
“You look fantastic. Did you highlight your hair again?” Evie asked when she ran into Bailey outside the cafeteria at the newspaper Tuesday morning.
Bailey’s blush must have given her away because before she could respond, Evie grabbed her hand and pulled her into the nearby ladies’ room.
“Oh, my God. Tell me everything.”
“What do you mean?” Bailey gave Evie her well-rehearsed, wide-eyed innocent stare.
Evie squinted at her. “Don’t even try that on me. You look like a woman who got herself some. I know what that look looks like, so spill. Every. Single. Sexy detail. Right now.”
Bailey broke into a schoolgirl giggle that would have mortified her if anyone but Evie had heard it, and if she hadn’t been so completely over the moon. “He took me to his place last night, and I basically told him he had no choice but to make love to me.”
Evie gasped. “You seduced him?”
Bailey smirked. “It wasn’t difficult. Don’t look so shocked.”
“Oh, I didn’t think you’d have a hard time getting a guy to have sex with you. I thought you’d have a hard time convincing yourself to get a guy to have sex with you. What happened to not letting things get too serious too fast?”
A twinge of guilt tickled the back of Bailey’s mind, but she ignored it and concentrated on fluffing her hair in the mirror. “Who said it’s serious?”
“So you’re not in love with him?”
Bailey braced her hands on the nearest sink and took a deep breath. “I never said that.”
“So you are in love with him?”
“Evie, give me a break here. Once you see him, you’ll understand. It would be utterly impossible for me not to fall in love with him. He’s a freakin’ rock star, and in bed…Good Lord, I can’t even describe it. I literally had no idea what I’ve been missing all these years.”
Evie crossed her arms over her chest and met Bailey’s gaze in the mirror. “Seriously?”
Bailey put a hand over her heart. “No lie. Could this face lie? You said it yourself, you took one look at me and you knew. I’ve been well and truly taken care of in that department.”
“Well, good for you. It’s about time.”
“What do you mean? You were the one worried I’d go too fast.”
“I was worried you’d stop yourself from going anywhere because you were afraid of going too fast. You’re all grown-up. I’m not going to treat you like some teenager who doesn’t know what she’s gotten herself into. You paid your dues with Dan, now it’s your turn to live a little. And you’re right. I can’t argue with the evidence.” Evie winked. “You look like a million bucks today.”
“He’s been texting me all morning. Every single time I see the message is from him I get this weird feeling in my stomach. I feel like I’m seventeen.”
“If I wasn’t completely in love with Tanner, I’d be jealous.”
“Do you want to meet him?”
“Oh, yes. I have to check this rock star out.”
“Why don’t you and Tanner come to Colette’s Saturday night? Taylor’s band is playing, and Matt wants me to hang out, but he doesn’t want to me sit alone all night if the place is really busy. You guys could keep me company until his shift is over.”
“Sounds like fun. I’ll text Tanner and let you know.”
Evie left the ladies’ room, and after she’d gone, Bailey looked at herself in the mirror again. Her cheeks were still flushed. Did she really look like a woman in love? Or was Evie just hyperintuitive because she was in love herself?
She splashed a little cold water on her face and took a couple of deep breaths. It was going to be a long week if she was going to spend every waking minute in this state of excitement over Matt. She had to see him again, soon, or she was going to burst.
Chapter Eleven
He’d known her a week, and in that time she’d turned every aspect of his life completely upside down.
Matt stood
behind the bar at Colette’s early Saturday night contemplating quitting, not because he didn’t need the money, and not because he didn’t enjoy the fun, flirty atmosphere of the most popular restaurant in town, but because he knew he’d spend the rest of the evening watching Bailey from afar while she sat with her friends and he poured drinks. He wanted to be with her every minute, and working at the bar meant Friday and Saturday nights were a bust.
He’d already skipped two classes this week to see her, after he’d told her his schedule was booked. He’d blown off a lecture and showed up on her doorstep on Wednesday night, which had led to him not leaving her apartment until seven a.m. Thursday morning. That night he’d ditched his Architecture Theory class and picked her up for an early movie and a moonlit walk in the park, which had led to an epic make-out session in his car. The bruise he’d gotten on his hip from the gear shift still hurt, and he grinned like a fool every time it twinged.
She had him seeing stars, fireworks, and heaven help him, a future that was far more settled than he’d ever let himself consider this side of getting his degree.
“Kelz, snap out of it.” Buck snapped his fingers in front of Matt’s face, bringing him back to reality. “We’re filling up. Are you here or visiting la-la land again?”
“Sorry. I’m here. Just tired.”
Buck smirked. “The hot redhead?”
“Does it show?”
“You’ve had your eye on the door since you walked in. Is she coming tonight?”
“Yeah, with her friends to see the band.”
“Well, that’s sweet, but if you want to earn any kind of money in tips tonight, you’d better keep that Hollywood face of yours in the game.” Buck grabbed Matt’s shoulders and pointed him to a bevy of brunettes who’d just nabbed half a dozen seats at the bar. “There’s the opposing team. You go score, Romeo, and sell some booze and appetizers. Got it?”
Spring River Valley: The Spring Collection (Boxed Set) Page 14