Work For It

by Ashley Bostock

  She moved to kick off her heels.

  “Leave them on. This time,” Dylan said.

  He watched her throat bob as she swallowed then went back to work on kissing every exposed spot he could get his mouth on.

  His phone rang. No. No.

  “Fuck. Ignore it.” He went back to kissing her. The ring was too annoying and persistent to block out. Shit.

  “This better be good,” he warned whoever was on his phone before he managed to pull it out of his pants pocket. Cole. Of course.

  He put a single finger up to Lina and then walked over to the fireplace.

  “This better be good,” he repeated.

  Cole chuckled. “Bets over. Did I win?”

  “Not a fucking chance. I told you that you wouldn’t.”

  “Bet you’re trying to get it on right now, huh? Cute dress, easy access.”

  Dylan gripped the phone tighter in his hand. He knew Cole was happily engaged, so why Cole’s comment riled Dylan up, Dylan couldn’t say. He didn’t want his friends thinking about her like that. Hell, he didn’t like the idea of any man thinking about her like that. As far as Dylan was concerned, he was the only man that should be thinking of Lina in that way.

  “Which is why I have to go. You can wire the money or send Cam a check. Either works for me.” He didn’t wait for a response, just ended the call.

  “The official end to the bet,” Lina said from behind.

  Before he could turn around, she was directly behind him. He could feel her body heat along his back before she wrapped her arms around him. Oh fuck. She was in her panties and bra as well as those sky-high shoes. Which meant she’d finished taking of her dress while he’d been on the phone. He might have just fallen in love a little bit at that thought.

  She caressed his chest with her hand, letting it travel over his raging manhood that was still covered in a pair of jeans.

  “Do you think it’s safe to proceed now?” she asked lightly.

  He groaned as her hot breath hit his shoulder blades. Her tongue swept over his skin. Her hands came to the sides of his waistband.

  “Sweetheart, nothing is getting in my way now. Not Martha. Not a damn phone call. Nothing is stopping me from making sweet love to you.” He turned in her arms, meeting her gaze.

  She gave him a shy smile. “I’m definitely not going to stop you from making love to me. Or fucking me with that massive dick of yours.”

  Her dirty words, albeit slightly jokingly, elicited a deep laugh from his throat. That’s my girl. In one swift move he pulled her up and hiked her half-naked body over his shoulder.

  “Let’s go then.”

  They managed to make it inside without anyone disturbing them and up into his bedroom. Dylan tried not to laugh as he threw Lina down on his fluffy comforter, the thud of her body against his bed giving a resounding sound of finality as he climbed on top of her. She smelled amazing.

  His mouth hovered over hers. For the first time in his life, all he could think about was her and how he wanted to savor this moment. To prolong their first time together for as long as he could. To make her feel things she hadn’t ever felt. He wanted her left with a smile on her face and convinced that she made the right decision by being with him like this. He memorized the way her wide eyes went from blue to midnight. The tiny path of freckles along the bridge of her nose. How he could actually feel her heart beat beneath his chest.

  “Are you going to kiss me or what?” Lina asked.

  Dylan smiled and shook his head. “So sassy.”

  He nipped at her lips. Lower, along her neck. Swirling his tongue around the freckles there. He pressed himself into her thighs, eliciting a soft moan from her throat. He didn’t move as her fingers glided over the thicket of hair across his chest and down his abs. Lina’s eyes were on his body while his eyes were on hers. With her lips slightly parted, she watched him in awe as if she’d never before experienced or seen something so exquisite.

  “I’ve never been with someone that looks like you,” she said.

  Her fingers trailed down his stomach just barely dipping along the denim of his jeans and belt buckle. She looked up. His heart felt like Lina gripped it with her hands and tugged it toward her. Making him feel like he couldn’t breathe, but that he was relieved to be at his destination all at once.

  Her hands went to his belt buckle. He gripped her wrists, stopping her.

  “Not yet.” He kissed her again as her fingers threaded through his hair. He lost himself in the taste of her. Of her skin along her neck and down to the scratch of her lacy bra against his mouth. He was horrible at unclasping bras but with her help, managed to unbuckle the small clasp between her tits exposing her pink, tight buds.

  “You’re beautiful, Lina,” he whispered. Dylan tugged one of her nipples into his mouth as her nails dug into his back. He’d never had foreplay like this before – she not knowing that he was Dylan Truex. It was freeing. Like the two of them, like this, could be completely free to enjoy the feelings between them without having to keep up his armor that she had a potential angle.

  It always boiled down to trust.

  Guilt gnawed at him for not being honest, but when his mouth traveled down lower across her stomach and goosebumps marked her flesh, he couldn’t say he felt that bad. Okay, a little.

  “Take them off.” She lifted her hips from the bed.

  “I’m getting there, sweetheart.”

  He untangled her legs and spread them apart, touching the center of her. She gave a breathy sigh, and he did it again. He was hard as fuck and couldn’t wait to sink into her but didn’t want to rush. He’d waited this long. What was five more minutes?

  “Let’s get these off you.” Dylan hooked his fingers to the sides of her panties and pulled them from her thighs.

  He almost died at the magnificent sight before him. He leaned down, wanting so badly to taste her against his lips.

  He smirked, placing his finger against her wet folds. “You’re so wet for me, Lina. So ready.” He slid his fingers across her center, coating his fingertips with her wetness before bringing them to his mouth.

  Lina’s cheeks turned pink. “What are you doing to me?”

  “What are you doing to me?” he asked. “I’ve never wanted a woman as badly as I want you. You taste like sunshine.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t. You’re crazy.”

  He slid a finger inside of her and then withdrew it, brought it to her mouth. She hesitated and then slowly opened her mouth as he slipped his finger inside. Her lips suctioned around his finger and took it all in.

  He exhaled a long sigh of contentment.

  He then slid a finger deep inside her and her head fell back on to his pillow. This. He’d been missing it for much too long. She tightened around his finger, and Dylan slid it in and out in a slow rhythm.

  “I want to see you,” Lina said. She lifted her head off his pillow, watching him pump his finger—now two—inside her.

  “I can’t stop what I’m doing, sweetheart. Relax. You’ll see all of me soon enough.” He loved watching her writhe around the bed, her hands moving against the sheets and along her body.

  When Lina tightened against his fingers so hard, he thought she might break them. He used his free hand and squeezed her clitoris, eliciting a hard orgasm from her body. Her legs shook beneath his touch, a soft sheen of sweat marred her forehead and her eyes closed in contented bliss as her orgasm wracked her body.

  Mission accomplished.

  He smiled.

  The sound of his belt buckle clanging in the silence made her open her eyes. His cock sprang free from his pants.

  “Commando?”

  “Mostly.”

  Lina leaned forward, her legs still spread wide as she gripped his dick. He was determined not to come in her palm as her hand went from the base to the tip a few times in exploration. He’d never make a bet like that again.

  He swallowed as her tongue darted out in lust, and she bent her head to
devour him. Fuck. He’d surely come much too fast if she kept this up. Her lips suctioned around him, and her head bobbed up and down as she sucked him in and out of her mouth.

  He groaned when her hand gripped his balls.

  “Sweetheart, I’m enjoying it too much. Stop sucking. Please.” Dylan tugged gently on her hair. She did crazy things to his soul when she stared up in awe, her lips wet and her face flushed. What the hell was this all about? The no sex for eight months?

  “Are you having second thoughts?” Lina’s sweet voice surrounded his body with warmth.

  Her hands rubbed against his small amount of pubic hair and across his v. “Not at all.”

  He tore open a condom and quickly sheathed himself. As he tasted her mouth, he pushed her back against his bed. He pushed her legs up so her knees were near her ears, completely exposing her. A mere second later he finally slid inside of her home free. It was everything he’d fantasized about. More than he deserved. Too much to handle. Their moans of desire spread through their joined bodies creating a live wire of electricity that was unstoppable. Undeniable.

  He slowly withdrew from her body, giving himself time to adjust to the way she felt. Too tight. Too perfect. Too much like he belonged in her embrace. Their eyes collided, and he couldn’t figure out what it was, but he could feel the odd awareness—stirrings—in his body as he fell into her atmosphere like he was getting dizzy from watching falling snowflakes.

  That tightness settled in his chest again.

  As if she sensed something surreal happening between them, Lina reached down and gripped his cock, guiding him back inside her. Her legs fell to the sides.

  “Fuck me. Make love to me. Make me forget my name.”

  How could he say no to that? Mission accepted.

  He thrust hard into her. Pressed to the hilt as he pumped furiously against her pussy. The headboard thumped against the wall mingling with Lina’s cries of pleasure as he banged an orgasm out of her. Her nails dug into his ass cheeks and he bit down on the swell of her neck and shoulder in pleasurable pain as she convulsed around his dick.

  He let go of the tender flesh of her neck, oddly happy that he’d left a bright red mark on her, claiming her as his.

  At least for now.

  But the truth was that he wanted more than now.

  She shimmied her hips against Dylan, squeezing her legs around him in an effort to make him lose control. “Don’t stop.”

  Sweat poured between them as Dylan continued plunging inside of her. She took everything he was giving her and even though he’d jacked off for months—it wasn’t the same—as her tightness milked his shaft and when another orgasm took hold of her, his followed.

  His throat tickled as he let out a hearty groan, and spent, he dropped his head into the sweet curve of Lina’s neck.

  “Fuck,” he said. Because of how that felt and because of how it made him feel. The crazy awareness of Lina that he’d never experienced with a woman. Like, soul deep. They’d just had amazing once-in-a-lifetime sex. That was it. It had to be from the stupid bet. It was heightening his responsiveness to the situation. That was all it could be, nothing more. He didn’t allow himself to get mixed up in silly emotions over a woman.

  And damn, if that sexual encounter had him sensitive to exactly that.

  He brushed a hand over his eyes. He had a gut sinking feeling that the sugar cookies came from Regina.

  Nah. Couldn’t be. Even though his gut rarely steered him wrong, he chose not to listen.

  “Can we do it again? I’m ready for more.” Lina’s tiny voice whispered in his ear, sending new pulses straight to his dick.

  “Only on one condition, sweetheart.”

  She bit his ear. “What’s that?”

  “I want you to sit on my face before I take you again.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  It was past ten at night and after a week, Dylan’s roommate was wrapped around him like a blanket. Just like he’d wanted since day one.

  Lina had been about to fall asleep, and he took it upon himself to clean up their condom wrappers and each other just before she’d drifted off. She didn’t even ask if she could sleep in his bed, she just did it. And a part of him liked that. Who was he kidding? All of him. All of him liked that. Most women he’d been with were always worried about pleasing him and what he wanted or how they should act around him, but not Lina. She just did what she wanted and expected him to follow.

  He shook his head.

  And follow he did.

  She was easy like Sunday morning, but he wasn’t sure if that was because she hadn’t gotten to know him as Dylan Truex and therefore, she wasn’t wooed by him. Or if Lina Armstrong was simply easy spirited. He unplugged his phone from the charger and snapped a selfie in bed, being sure not to get any part of his bedmate’s hair or body in the photo.

  When he stopped by Cam’s today, Dylan had gotten a shit ton of crap for not posting anything lately. He’d been preoccupied with Lina’s…err, Lina’s everything. Her smarts, her sass, her beauty, her talentedly slow hands. So sue him.

  He set the picture up, liking too much how he had that just fucked look about him and typed in his standard hashtags. #TheV, #DirtyGains, #GuysWhoLift. #WorkForIt and a few others before he wrote the caption: go after what you want with your eyes wide open.

  That seemed truthful. From his heart.

  Was that what he was doing with Lina? Why was his heart even getting involved? It hadn’t in the past, so why now? It was clearly the right choice to withhold his last name from her. And technically, aside from that, everything he’d told her had been the truth. He owned gyms. He worked out. He didn’t know her finances, so there was no reason for her to know he had more money than he could ever spend in his life time—or his future great-grandchildren’s life time—wasn’t a lie. An omission but not an outright betrayal.

  His feelings toward her had to be a direct result from hiding his true identity. Would she be angry when she found out? Would she want no part of his life then? Surely not. He wasn’t into schmoozing and wining and dining at Pine Valley Golf Club even though they sent him an invitation for membership every year. Maybe he’d accept some day but for now it was a no. Lina wouldn’t want to deal with an elite group like that. She’d hold up just fine and have plenty of sass, so he wasn’t afraid that she couldn’t hold her own, but she wouldn’t want that and neither did he.

  He could only hope when she found out the truth, she wouldn’t hate him so much that she’d want nothing to do with him.

  He put is phone away before he could be suckered in by the comments and likes. He closed his eyes. Since when did he start planning anything beyond this last week anyway? He’d never been one to plan anything with a member of the opposite sex longer than that and here he was thinking long-term. To be honest, the idea wasn’t even scaring him.

  He brushed his fingertips along Lina’s bare shoulder, loving the way her freckles looked. God’s mark. Painted on her like the canvas of His that she was. The sheet came up enough to cover most of her body except for one nipple that was peeking out from the falling cloth. She tipped his world every which way. He’d never met anyone who was naturally beautiful inside and out. Even when she wore make-up, which she had fallen asleep in now, wasn’t bold or caked on like he was used to. It was subtle. She was subtle. A force to be reckoned with when she needed to be, but subtle too.

  Did it make a difference if he had eaten Regina’s infamous sugar cookies? Because what he was feeling right now, seemed much more worldly and important than a fresh batch of frosted cookies. He felt alive. He felt like whatever was happening between the two of them was important and leading them to extraordinary places. For the first time in his life he was feeling like he was almost to the top of a mountain and couldn’t wait to see the view from the top.

  He was in it longer than a week.

  He had to tell Lina he was in it beyond Pine Lake.

  His chest filled with that strange tingling sensation th
at he was beginning to realize was his emotions. She was in his heart.

  A place he’d never let any woman, including his mother.

  Then from out of nowhere another idea sprouted. Ways Dirty Gains could expand into high schools and youth sports around the community. Enrich the lives of younger kids through physical fitness—more than any P.E. class could—by providing them with all the tools they’d need to strengthen their body and mind, thus helping them excel in sports. He needed to take notes so he wouldn’t lose his train of thought.

  He opened an app on his phone and typed out what was coming to him. Sports equipment in high schools and middle schools. Physical fitness programs and incentives for younger grades to be active. Programs for the older kids to expand their fitness routines outside of school. He knew there were plenty of kids out there who didn’t have an active lifestyle outside of school.

  Feeling pumped about Dirty Gains for the first time in a long time, Dylan made a few more notes before closing his app and setting his phone aside.

  That was what his dreams had been trying to formulate. He was certain of it.

  Electric pulses shot through his blood as he thought about new avenues for his company and new ideas. Could this be the change he was looking for? His brothers could handle the fitness portion—he could still film the videos—and he could start this new approach.

  He glanced at Lina’s sleeping form. He couldn’t wait to tell her.

  He lowered his mouth to that one nipple that was exposed and swirled his tongue around the tip. She shifted slightly, the sheet uncovering more of her breast and the top of the other one.

  He grazed his teeth again over the hard nub.

  “This is a hell of a way to wake up.” Her happy voice teased his senses.

  He looked into her eyes. His heart was hammering foolishly crazy. What he saw in her eyes was pure and unconditional. He felt it. He gave her the same look right back. I feel it too.

  “I’d wake you up any way you wanted if that meant I could make love to you any time I wanted.” He said it, and he meant every word of it. Now. In the future. For as long as she’d have him. He watched as her chest rose and fell with each breath she took.