The Sweetest Fix

by Bailey, Tessa

  They met in the middle of the bed and he shifted slightly, offering his shoulder as an even better pillow—and she went, her nose tucking naturally into his neck, inhaling him without subtlety. Their thighs were next, pressing, hard against smooth, his erection a thick column between their stomachs. They’d only been lying that way for a moment, breaths growing choppy, when the fingertips of Leo’s right hand dragged up the outside of her thighs slowly, traveling the valley of her side, the featherlight touch making her damp. So damp between her legs that she gasped, pressing closer.

  And their mouths were simply powerless to do anything but find one another in the darkness, their bodies shifting to accommodate the kiss. The hungry energy of it. Her fingers curled in the waistband of his boxers, urging him closer, his right hand twisting in the T-shirt material covering her back.

  “Maybe we’ll be able to nap if we…” Reese started, whispering the words against his mouth. “Exert some of this energy.”

  They fell into another explosive kiss that took a full minute to break, both of them pulling apart, gasping. “Is that what you want?”

  Her nod was painfully enthusiastic. Or it would have been painful with anyone else but Leo. Their need matched like it had been cut from the same cloth. Her leg rose to drape over his hip, his hands catching it mid-move, already anticipating her, and they rolled, Reese ending up on her back, thighs clinging to his waist, both of them fumbling with the hem of her borrowed T-shirt to get it off, every second that passed without their skin touching unbearable.

  They could barely stop kissing long enough to get the material over her head, their tongues in a constant, sensual tangle. When they finally came up for air and managed to remove the garment, Leo’s expression of bald male lust seared itself into her memory for all time. “I didn’t have a change of panties in the bag,” Reese managed, explaining her total nudity around labored breaths. “Or a bra.”

  “I’m not complaining. I’m the opposite of complaining.” His palm stroked downward from the between her breasts, brushing her belly and traveling back upward to take her right breast in his hand, molding it with just the right amount of pressure, the intensity on his face making her pulse quicken. “Christ, Reese. You’re so fucking beautiful.”

  “I feel that way. When you look at me.” Wow. That was easily the most vulnerable thing she’d ever said during an intimate moment…and she didn’t feel any less secure for it. The reverse, actually. The connection between them only burned hotter, brighter, Leo swooping down to claim her mouth for another kiss.

  They made out. Naked, except for Leo’s boxers. It went on for hours. It lasted minutes. She had no idea when her thoughts were tilting and spinning, wrapped up in this man. No one’s touch came close to the buzz she got from dancing. Until now. This was better. Leo Bexley’s mouth, the substantial weight of his body pressing her down, his hardness rocking against her sex again, again, again made her higher than dance.

  They broke the kiss out of necessity, breath pelting each other’s lips. “I want to go down on you,” they said at the exact same moment, their resulting laughter one of the best sounds she’d ever been a part of making. “You first?” Reese purred, pushing at his shoulder in an attempt to roll Leo onto his back.

  But he wouldn’t budge. “No. You first.”

  He started to kiss his way down her throat, breasts, stopping for several moments to kiss them, rolling her distended nipples on his tongue, making her hips writhe until he had to pin them down beneath his weight—and God, God that made her so hot. “Maybe.” His teeth raked her nipple lightly and she whimpered. “S-same time?”

  Why she was suggesting such a maneuver when she’d never done it before in her life was anybody’s guess. Leo didn’t hesitate to agree, though. In his own way. The moment the suggestion was out of her mouth, she was quite simply being manhandled into position.

  Leo turned onto his back, all heavy lidded and flexed with anticipation, dragging her over for a stabilizing kiss. Pulling away to look her in the eye, his hand took her knee and hauled it over his chest, facing her away from him in a straddle, her bare backside on full display a matter of inches from his face. And it should have been nerve-inducing, right? It wasn’t. Drowsy from kissing in the dark, with this man, it was decadent, especially when his hands molded to her buttocks, his breath rasping in and out, that big thumb sliding up the center and making her gasp. “Get back here and let me lick it, Reese.”

  Well heck.

  You don’t have to tell me twice.

  Her knees slid backwards in the sheets, partly of her volition, partly because Leo was tugging her hips closer, then sliding his hand up to her back, pressing her forward, giving him access to her sex—and he immediately took full advantage, holding her still to tongue her folds apart, the tip teasing her clit, easy, easy, then laving it richly, his groan of male appreciation vibrating up through her body and making her desperate, achy to give, as well as receive.

  The pleasure he wrought blurred her vision slightly, making it hard to concentrate on leaning forward to push down the waistband of his briefs. Freeing him.

  Oh my God. Definitely proportionate to the rest of his large body.

  And then she was so eager for the hard weight of him in her mouth, no concentration was required. There was only feeling. Only the slickness of her mouth and the salt of him waking up her taste buds. The ridges of his shaft traveling a filthy path along her tongue, the way he cursed every time she sank down, down, down just a little more each time. His hips lifted as if he couldn’t help but jolt at the pleasure, one of his hands gripping her hair, the movements of his tongue speeding, slanting, targeting her right where she needed it.

  She’d always categorized this act as scandalous. Probably because every idiot male she’d ever met in high school laughed whenever the teacher asked the class to turn to page sixty-nine until she’d eye rolled enough times to disregard it as gross.

  There was nothing scandalous or gross about this. They were two people who were too impatient to please each other that it couldn’t wait. They were greedy, Reese’s hips beginning to roll, pushing back into the strokes of his tongue, a whine breaking from her throat when Leo took her backside in his hands, handling it roughly, squeezing her cheeks like dough, parting her for a slow plunge of his tongue inside of her.

  The unexpected move made her moan, tilt her hips for more. Made her forget all about the barrier of the back of her throat and take him almost fully into her mouth, her hand tightening around the base of his swollen shaft. And she had the pleasure of watching his knees jerk up, feet digging into the bed. The trunks of his thighs shook, his harsh breaths bathing the most intimate parts of her body.

  “Do it again, Jesus, please, Reese, do it again.”

  She did, slower this time, pumping her fist around him on the way back up.

  “Fuck,” he panted. “Fuck.”

  His middle finger found her then, almost like a reward, polishing her clit in fast revolutions. Pressure built in her throat, along with a climax in her middle. Deep, down in her middle. That tongue sinking inside of her and twisting, tossed her over the high jump bar, the intensity of it giving her no choice but to let Leo’s erection fall from her mouth so she could scream her way through it, the single best orgasm of her life.

  Every one of her senses heightened as it roared through her muscles, turning them to shaking jelly. The hand in her hair pulled, prickling her scalp deliciously, Leo’s body hair chafed her belly, making her feel feminine and delicate and coveted. An object of pleasure. Giving and receiving. The wicked clenching between her legs ebbed and flowed, her teeth chattering with every feverish pull of tissue. The rush of wetness, of bliss, had her floating so high off the ground, she was barely aware of Leo turning her around to face him. She simply opened her eyes and found herself facing him in a straddle, his mouth right there, giving her no choice but to kiss it for everything she was worth.

  “What do you need now?” Leo asked hoarsely, after he
’d succeeded in making her delirious. “You want me to put you on your back and lick it some more?” His palm coasted down over the curve of her buttocks, delving between and petting her sex from behind. “Believe me, I’d already kill for another taste of this sweet little thing.”

  Her hand moved, as if magnetized, to the male arousal lying large and hard on his stomach, massaging it up and down in a loose fist. “Can I have you inside me?”

  One of his hands shot out before she’d uttered the final word, yanking his side table drawer open and producing a condom. Ripping it open with his teeth, he handed her the latex, head falling back on a groan. “Why am I not already there, Reese?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, her words practically slurring together as she covered him, fingers clumsy in her haste. Task done, she rose up onto her knees and guided Leo where he was needed. Desperately. Even after the orgasm to end all orgasms, there was a lack of completion without this final joining. This deeper act of intimacy.

  She’d never known herself to be noisy, or a screamer, but apparently that all changed today. The further she sank down on his thick inches, she more these desperate sounds poured from her throat, sawing in and out, culminating in a full-bodied moan once she’d seated Leo completely. He leaned up, pressing their foreheads together, his hands clamped down on her hips. And he spoke to her through his teeth. “Don’t move. Don’t move.”

  “Okay,” she breathed. “Why?”

  “Are you serious?” His laughter was strained. “You deep throated me twice. All while grinding this tight—God, it’s so tight—waxed pussy on my mouth. I’ve never had to concentrate so hard on not coming in my fucking life. Don’t. Move.”

  Her entire body was trembling with the need for friction, but she bit down hard on her lip, held tight to his shoulders and tried to stay still. “The waxing m-makes it easier for costumes,” she said, in an attempt to distract them both. “Was I really grinding it?”

  “This isn’t helping.”

  “Sorry.”

  Although, she kind of loved this. Having him poised right on the edge, that hard appendage pulsing inside of her as it could erupt at the slightest movement. She wanted to give him that. Wanted to drive him crazy. Give him the same kind of pleasure he’d just given her. Feeling feminine and maybe, possibly, a little evil, Reese squeezed the delicate muscles of her core around him, gratified when his eyes rolled back in his head. “Christ oh Christ oh Christ.”

  There was no waiting after that. Leo shot up into a sitting position, gripped her bottom and jerked her into a gallop. With their mouths fused together, she rode him hard, throwing her hips back and slapping them forward, flesh to flesh, Reese crying out in the direction of the ceiling over the sheer carnality of the act. Fingernails dug into muscle, bed springs squeaked, sweat appeared on skin, and faster and faster they went, her vocal cords aching with throaty renditions of his name.

  “That’s right, sweetheart,” Leo growled in her ear, his palm cracking down on her butt cheek. “Let everyone in the building know you’re getting that good dick.”

  That command set off a telltale clench. “Oh my God. It’s…again. Now happening.”

  “Fuuuuck, me too. I’m there. Can’t stop it.” When her head fell back on a moan, he raked his open mouth up the curve of her neck, across her shoulder. One of his hands left her backside, finding the wildly sensitive nub of flesh between her legs, rubbing it gently at first, then with firmer pressure. “Come on, Reese. Let me feel it,” he rasped. “Bet when you come, this pussy gets even tighter than your pretty little throat.” With that, his teeth sank lightly into the body part in question, just above the hollow, trapping her in a prison of lust.

  And she spun, inundated with wave after wave of release.

  It shook her, rattled her bones, and she was lifted higher into the atmosphere when Leo’s hips spasmed beneath her, her name leaving his mouth as a base, guttural sound. The second time he said it—Reese—his tone had been laced with awe, that hearty body of his rolling beneath her, wringing out every ounce of what they’d done. She dropped her forehead onto his shoulder, licking the salt from his skin, and let him manhandle her through his climax, his hands pressing her down into his lap, shifting her, bouncing and jerking her until finally the tension left him and they fell backward together into the pillows.

  For long moments, there was nothing but the sound of their labored breathing in the dim room. Here they were. The point where, in the past, Reese started to feel awkward, wondering what came next. There was none of that with Leo, though.

  No, they only looked at each other across the pillows, content in the silence.

  Content to…be together.

  “Holy shit, Leo,” she said, finally. “That was…”

  “Yeah.” He disposed of the condom and fell back against the pillows, his chest rising and falling. “The only phrase coming to mind is thank you. Because…Christ.” He shook his head. “Just…Christ. I’m supposed to just go back outside now in the regular world and walk around like everything is normal?”

  She giggled, scooting closer to him, sighing over the way he lifted his arm automatically to let her into the warmth of his side, lifting the comforter over them both. With her head resting on his shoulder, their legs twining together in a tangle, Leo and Reese finally got their nap. With her body so deeply sated and the comfort Leo provided wrapped around her, Reese slept more deeply than she could ever remember, waking up with no idea of the time, a lopsided bun on her head and deliciously sore muscles.

  Reluctantly disengaging from Leo, she sat up and stretched her arms up over her head, purring in her throat, when Leo lifted a hand, trailing his fingertips down the center of her bare breast, perking the nipple right up.

  “We’ve either been asleep five minutes,” she said around a yawn. “Or five years.”

  He hummed, his palm skimming down over her belly. “What time is your curtain call tonight?”

  Thank God she wasn’t facing Leo or he would have witnessed the blood draining from her face. The pulse in her neck started hammering a million miles an hour, guilt and alarm colliding in her belly. “Um…” Weeknight. Shows are at seven. “Six o’clock.”

  When Leo stiffened beside her, Reese assumed her answer must have been implausible. Good. She was caught. Part of her was relieved. How could she share such perfect intimacy with someone while being a total fraud? “Reese…” Leo started, sitting up. “It’s five-forty-nine.”

  In other words, she was late for her fake job.

  This is why lies were poisonous. It was never just one. One was only the beginning.

  Reese looked around Leo’s cozy apartment. Through the door, she could see his perfect, grown-up kitchen. Just down the street, he had his own successful business. Knew exactly who he was, what he wanted, how to get it. Meanwhile, she’d reached for her dreams over and over, failing—just look at this afternoon—and the humiliation scrabbled up her spine.

  She couldn’t make herself turn to him and admit she was an unemployed dancer. That their meeting hadn’t been random. That she was actually in New York on a shoestring budget, taking one final shot at glory. The odds of her succeeding were so precarious, she couldn’t even talk about it out loud, lest they topple completely. Lest someone say to her, out loud, what a ridiculous idea it had been to stay. To try at all.

  Well if she wasn’t woman enough to tell Leo the truth, then…right here, right now, is where she needed to break it off. Right? She’d gotten in too deep, never expected to…to bond with him so quickly and completely. Meaning, the longer she waited, the harder this would be.

  With her heart lodged in her throat, Reese pushed out of bed, trying to remember where she’d put her clothes. Right. They were in her bag. “Whoops.” She swallowed hard and left the bedroom, beelining for her duffel. “Good thing we’re not too far away.”

  As quickly as possible, she pulled on her red bodysuit and loose pants, not bothering with the underwear. She sensed Leo watching from
the doorway of his bedroom and heat pressed in behind her eyes. “I could come watch you dance sometime,” he said.

  Oh God. How far had she expected to take this lie?

  “Yeah. I don’t know,” she returned, standing and shouldering her bag without turning around. “That would be like, a really big step. You know?”

  Leo said nothing.

  The acidic words that would end their budding relationship completely sat heavily on her tongue, but she couldn’t bring herself to say them. To outright hurt him. It was hard to believe, but in a short space of time, she’d fallen for Leo. Causing him pain simply wasn’t in her repertoire. Reese schooled her features and turned, sending him a quick smile over her shoulder.

  “I should run,” she blurted, turning the deadbolt lock and jogging out into the hallway, out of the building and onto the sidewalk, the memory of his somber expression haunting her all the way back to her rented closet.

  Chapter 12

  Leo stared through gritty eyes at the cheerfully written note on the dry erase board.

  Today is Saturday the sixth. Only eight days until Valentine’s Day!

  He pounded his fist into the pastry dough a little harder than necessary, wanting nothing more than to scrap the Sweetest Fix idea. It might have great margins and invited more local interest in the bakery, but every time Jackie handed him a new order, he thought of Reese and the way he fucked everything up so spectacularly. Asking to see her perform had been too much too soon. He could still remember the way her shoulders stiffened at the suggestion.

  Buying a ticket to a performance might not seem like a huge deal to most, but in the world of behind the scenes Broadway, it means things were tipping toward serious. If he’d just taken a moment to think, he might have taken a more cautious approach with Reese. After all, she’d originally turned him down for a date before grudgingly agreeing. Then she’d tried to cancel. When he finally got her pinned down—literally and figuratively—he’d read way too much into her interest. Assumed it matched his own.