The love shining through her eyes now had another spark infused in them—one of the naughty variety. “I don’t know.” She grinned. “I might need a little more convincing.”
“Done.” There was nothing I wanted more than to prove exactly just how un-platonic my feelings were for her. Upon picking her up, I stalked towards my bedroom.
She giggled all the way until we crossed the threshold into my room. “Not now! We don’t have time before the press conference.”
“We have time,” I assured her as I lowered her onto the bed. “We’ve spent years wasting time, but now… Now, we have all the time in the world.”
With the flick of my finger, the towel around my waist dropped to the floor. In a single pull I removed her dress and dropped it beside my towel. My hungry gaze roamed up Destiny’s body. She was wearing a matching pink lace bra and panties, and my heart and other parts of my body swelled as one word kept repeating in my head.
Mine.
When my gaze reached hers, the look in her eyes was filled with a combination of heat, love, and awe. An urge to claim her swept through me as I stood before her naked, raw, hers. If I did what my body was demanding, this would be over before it had started. Which, in the back of my mind, I knew would probably be for the best considering I was scheduled to be standing in front of a swarm of reporters in less than an hour. But even that knowledge didn’t change the fact that I was not going to rush this. Showing and telling Destiny how I felt, how I’d always felt for her, was the only thing that mattered to me.
“These are pretty.” My words were strained with passion as my hands traced the outline of her bra and panties.
“They’re new,” she panted as her body flushed beneath my touch.
I locked my eyes with hers. “Did you buy them for me?”
She nodded as her lips parted and her lids grew heavy with lust.
Pride and love rocked through me. “Well, I better take a closer look, then.”
Destiny inhaled sharply as I slid my fingers beneath her knees and tugged her firmly to the edge of the bed. Lowering to my knees, I spread her legs apart, and my entire body pulsed with fiery need at the provocative view.
Taking my time, I ran my fingertip along the hem of her panties, over her hipbone, and across her stomach before moving my attention to her full breasts. I lovingly grazed my fingers over every single stitch of the fabric concealing her chest. Her nipples beaded under my caress. My palms tingled as I kneaded her lace-covered flesh.
“JJ,” she pleaded.
Her damp core ground against me as I leaned forward and placed gentle kisses along her collarbone—then lower, dipping into her cleavage as I slipped the thin material of her bra down. Then I kissed and sucked each nipple. Drawing them each into my mouth as my tongue flicked and my teeth nipped the distended buds.
Destiny writhed beneath me, grinding against my steel-hard length. Her hands roamed my back. My balls tingled and tightened from the sensation of her nails scratching and digging into my back and my shoulders. Her moans and sighs were getting louder each time I drew her breasts into my mouth.
I knew I could give her what she needed just like this—while teasing and sucking her nipples as my shaft ground against her swollen clit. The only problem with that was that, with a few more hip rolls, I would lose it. Destiny’s body felt too damn good. I didn’t even have to be inside it to explode.
As tempting as it was to come all over the creamy skin of her taut stomach, climaxing inside her, with her, would be so much better. Stilling my hips as I hovered over her, I pulled each one of her nipples into one more openmouthed kiss before I began my journey south.
When my mouth left her breasts, she groaned and her hands clasped in my hair, attempting to hold me in place. But her body relaxed as I kissed, licked, and loved every inch of her as I pulled her panties off.
My breath was labored as I sat back on my heels. I held her gaze as I placed one leg and then the other on each of my shoulders. A pink blush rose on her cheeks as she bit her lip and tilted her body upwards. I loved that being open to me like this made her blush even as she shamelessly offered herself to me.
Taking her seductively silent invitation, I covered her core, licking her from the base of her opening to hood of her sex. A wild tremor shook through her. My hands gripped her hips as I repeated the motion twice more before centering my efforts on her clit with a suctioning kiss. Within seconds, her body convulsed as she came against my mouth.
I continued suckling the hood of her sex as I slipped not one but two fingers into her tight passage. Curling the tip of my finger, I intimately massaged her, and then another spasm hit her. Her back surged off the bed as her hands fisted in my hair, holding me in place. Not that that was necessary—I have would happily stayed just like that, feeding off Destiny’s sweetness, for the rest of my life.
And, now that we’d cleared up the misconception that my feelings for her were platonic, I hoped that was exactly what my future held.
Chapter 29
Destiny
“If you’re going to bite off more than you can chew, make sure it’s worth the calories.”
~ Grandma Dixie
Lights flashed behind my eyelids like I was Angelina Jolie on the red carpet as my body recovered from my insanely explosive orgasm. JJ’s mouth, his touch, and his kiss sent me soaring to places I’d never even known existed. It was like he shot me to another dimension; one in which only the two of us existed.
I slowly gained awareness as tremors of aftershocks rushed through me. I opened my eyes and found JJ hovering above me. His hand was between us, clutching his length as he ran his engorged head up and down my still-pulsing slit. The sensation was almost enough to put me up and over the edge again. A delicious shot of bliss spread through me as I stared up into his eyes.
“I love you,” he whispered huskily as he rested his forehead against mine.
Tears threatened as I opened my mouth to reciprocate his statement of love. Before I spoke one word, though, my voice was stolen from me as JJ pushed his engorged tip between my tight folds. A silent cry was all I was able to express in return. Needing him like my anchor in the storm, my arms flew around his neck clutching him as my inner walls pulsed around his erotic intrusion.
“I love you,” he repeated again and again as he sank into me with excruciating restraint.
My entire being glowed with fevered desire as he filled me millimeter by millimeter in complete and total control of my body. Every time he fed himself into me, my body stretched and seized with pleasure.
I lost all track of time as he whispered declarations of love against my mouth as he sank into me. I was only aware of the all-consuming feeling of him filling me completely, the weight of his body on top of mine, and the brush of his lips as he repeated the three words I’d waited my entire life to hear him say.
JJ Briggs loved me. Was making love to me.
This moment was not what I’d expected when I’d shown up at his door this morning. I’d prepared myself for him to tell me that he just wanted to keep things casual. It wasn’t that I’d doubted that JJ cared about me—I had known he did. But, like he’d pointed out, he’d never had a girlfriend. I’d never seen him in a relationship, and last night, I’d decided that, even though I loved spending time with him—all of my time with him—there was no way I could keep doing it and not end up demolished by my unrequited feelings.
He’d broken my heart when I was eighteen. And then again when he’d disappeared after the Fourth. But, now, every second I spent with him, I fell further and further down the rabbit hole into Love Wonderland, and I if I’d continued free-falling, I would’ve been destroyed when I’d landed.
Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one who had fallen, and JJ had been there to catch me.
He stilled above me, and I lifted my eyes so I could look at him. My inner walls flexed around his rock-hard length.
“You’re mine. I love you,” he rasped as his hands cradled my face.
Between soft kisses he peppered along my jaw, my cheeks, and my forehead, he alternated saying that he loved me and I was his.
“Tell me,” he demanded as his body swelled inside me, stretching me to capacity.
“I love you,” I somehow managed to say despite my throat’s being clogged with an overwhelming onslaught of emotion.
“Tell me that you’re mine,” he gritted out.
“I’m yours.” The tears I’d been holding at bay now fell over my lids. “I’m yours. Forever.”
A primal groan ripped through his chest and vibrated against my own. Then he covered my mouth in a soul-stealing kiss. Losing myself completely in the feeling of his soft, velvety tongue exploring mine, I luxuriated in the tantalizing taste of myself on his tongue and his lips. Arousal spiked in me at the thought of all the wickedly wonderful things he did with that mouth when he was between my thighs. Instead of embarrassing me, it enflamed the heat of desire raging inside me.
Every time JJ touched me, looked at me, or kissed me, I felt empowered. Wanted. Worshipped. It wasn’t something I was used to.
When he stood before me, gloriously naked, with a raging hard-on that I’d caused, I’d felt bold. Like I had an inner seductress only he saw, or who only showed herself to him. The same feeling crashed into me as my body adjusted to his growing arousal during our sex-flavored kiss.
I tried to absorb every second of our encounter, to memorize it so I would only have to close my eyes to be transported back to this moment. All the passion, all the love, and even all the frustration I’d felt for JJ over the years were coursing through every cell of my body. Its power heightened with each kiss and each word JJ spoke. It was like I was floating, like I was having an out-of-body experience.
When he broke our kiss, he rose up to rest on his forearms, framing my face. Then he began thrusting slowly, methodically, in and out. In no time at all, my inner walls clenched, squeezing him as a now familiar feeling curled low in my belly. Wanting all of him, I wrapped my legs around his waist as my hands gripped the wide, muscular planes of his back and held him as close to me as possible.
My hips tilted up to meet each one of his possessive thrusts, and just as I reached my crest, JJ kissed me, swallowing my cries of ecstasy as he took me up and over the edge of oblivion.
His back stiffened under my fingers digging into his muscular shoulder blades at the exact moment of my own blinding release. My entire body shuddered. My inner walls milked him as I rode out the wonderfully earth-shattering waves of my climax. Each rhythmic convulsion was filled with increasing, almost-intolerable pleasure.
When my legs relaxed, flopping down to the bed out of sheer, sated exhaustion, I was happy that JJ stayed exactly where he was. I loved the feeling of being so intimately connected to him, and I knew that, the second he was gone, my body would feel hollow and empty. We couldn’t have stayed like that forever, but I would gladly take a few more moments.
The warmth of JJ’s breath spread down the sensitive skin below my ear as I tightened my hold around him and nuzzled even farther into the crook of his neck. His fingers were gently massaging the base of my scalp as he cradled my head. A moment ago, I would have said that sex with JJ was my absolutely favorite thing in the world, but now, my answer had changed to this. In his arms I was safe, treasured, protected. Completely cocooned in his love.
A loud knock sounded at the door, shattering the bubble I’d have happily floated in for the rest of my life.
JJ sighed as he gingerly rose off the bed. I couldn’t keep my eyes off his powerful body as he threw on a pair of basketball shorts and a T-shirt. How could getting dressed be so sexy?
“I’ll be right back,” he promised after giving me a quick kiss.
I nodded.
When he paused at the doorway and peered over his shoulder, he smiled. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Joy did not even come close to expressing what hearing those words, and being able to say them to JJ, filled me with.
“Just so you know,” he said, “you’re going to be hearing me say that a lot. I waited too damn long, and I plan on making up for lost time.”
I was pretty sure the smile spanning from ear to ear was broadcasting in high def how I felt, but just in case, I figured I would make sure there wasn’t any doubt. “I’m good with that.”
The knock came again, and JJ disappeared down the hall. When I heard his brothers’ voices coming from the front room, I knew that our stolen moment was now over. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but it was something about people waiting for him and being late for his own party.
As sad as I was that life had cut in on us, I was more excited than I’d ever been that I’d finally found my soul’s dance partner. JJ was mine. I was his. That’s all that mattered.
Chapter 30
Destiny
“Life has a way of pulling the rug out from under you just when you start to do a jig on it.”
~ Grandma Dixie
Taking a deep breath, I stood to the side of the podium. I couldn’t help the pitter-patter in my chest as JJ spoke to the press in front of City Hall. I had no idea how he appeared to be so composed. If cameras and microphones were being shoved in my face while people yelled questions at me, I’d probably have died. Literally. But he was the epitome of calm, cool, and collected. It was a serious turn on. Not that he really needed to add one more thing to his sex-appeal roster.
The past hour had been a hurricane of activity. When half of JJ’s family had shown up to find out why he wasn’t answering his phone, I’d hoped that he’d leave with them and give me a moment to collect myself, physically and emotionally.
One look in the mirror had revealed that I was a mess—a sexed-up mess. My hopes had been dashed when JJ, being his stubborn self, had declared that he would not leave without me, so I’d had to do a quick change and freshen-up that even Wonder Woman herself would’ve been impressed by.
I’d planned on wearing my hair down, and it was down when I’d shown up on JJ’s doorstep, but now, it was secured in a bun on top of my head. I hadn’t applied any makeup before my impulsive visit to JJ’s, so I luckily didn’t resemble a raccoon. After splashing some water on my face, I’d been able to apply a little mascara and some lip gloss I’d had in my purse. And the pièce de résistance was that I’d had the forethought to steam my dress by leaving the shower running on hot while I’d freshened up—and shock of all shocks, it had worked. My lilac sundress was wrinkle-free, with no signs of it having been crumpled on top of a damp towel on JJ’s bedroom floor.
I was glad that I looked at least somewhat presentable—the crowd that had gathered was massive. It looked like everyone from Clover County was there. Not to mention the news outlets, both local and national. Thankfully, since we’d arrived a little late, JJ had gone straight to the podium and all of the attention was firmly on him.
Jessie Sloan, who’d introduced herself as JJ’s publicist, was standing next to me. As much as I was loving seeing JJ in his element, I found myself continually sneaking glances at Jessie. She was just so…beautiful. And put together. She was wearing a black pencil skirt and a royal-blue button-up shirt that had to have been tailored because it fit her petite curves like a glove. It was hard not to feel a little…inadequate beside her.
Even though she had a diamond ring on her left hand, I still wondered if she and JJ had ever hooked up. Not that it mattered. That was his past, and hopefully, I was his future. I’d seen the women he’d dated—models and actresses. I couldn’t let that chip away at my self-esteem. He loved me. He’d chosen to move back home and be with me. That had to be enough.
Jessie motioned to the man next to JJ, whom I hadn’t had the chance to meet. He spoke into the microphone and said that they would only be taking a few more questions.
Seeing that things were wrapping up, I looked for Gram in the crowd. I was supposed to meet her there, but my morning had not gone exactly as planned. When I didn’t see her ri
ght away, I took my phone out to text her and let her know that I was beside the stage. I sucked in a small gasp of air when I saw I’d missed ten calls from her and there were no messages.
That was not like Gram. As discreetly as possible, I slipped away and headed across the small patch of grass which separated the library and City Hall to find a quiet place to call her back.
I’d just rounded the corner of the library and the phone had rang only once before a man’s voice came on the line. “Destiny.”
“Yes.” I was trying to remain calm, but inside, I was panicking.
“It’s Fred. Fred Rogers. Your grandmother has had a little fall, and I’m here at Valley Memorial with her.”
Okay, now, I was panicking. “Is she okay? What happened? Can I talk to her?”
“She’s fine. She passed out on our morning walk. Just got a little dizzy is all. She’s getting an MRI now, so she can’t talk, but as soon as she’s back, I’ll have her give you a call.”
“I’m coming right now.”
I tried to remain calm as I ended the call and made my way back to where I’d been to ask Jessie to tell JJ that I had to leave. As I got closer to the stage, I noticed that the crowd had dispersed. There was a few people milling around but when I didn’t see Jessie or JJ right away, I figured I would just text him on my way. I had to go, now. Heading back towards my car, I was walking as fast as I could on the wedges I was wearing.
On my way to the parking lot, my mind was going a mile a minute with questions.
She’d passed out?
Was that neurological?
Was it really a stroke and Mr. Rogers didn’t want to tell me over the phone?
He’d said “our morning walk.” Did they walk together?
Shaking my head, I told myself that it wasn’t important. Between myself and the parking lot there was a large crowd gathered around the wishing well, which was the most direct path to my car. Luckily, having grown up in town, I knew that if I cut behind Yum Yum Donuts a small back alley would drop me off at the same place.
Teasing Destiny (Wishing Well, Texas #1) Page 19