Once Upon a Bad Boy--A Sometimes in Love Novel

by Melonie Johnson

  His belt buckle scraped against the bare skin of her inner thighs. A sweet sting that made her wrap her legs around him and rake her nails down his naked back.

  “Fuck,” Bo breathed the word into her mouth, chasing after it with his tongue, thrusting between her lips, again and again. She welcomed the invasion, opening for him, sucking him deeper into her.

  As if making up for the many years they hadn’t spent kissing each other, Bo and Sadie kissed and kissed and kissed. Time spiraled out and all she knew was the heat of his mouth, the slide of his tongue against hers. Suddenly, his hands were on her ass and he was lifting her.

  “Hold on to me,” he told her, the command a harsh rasp against her lips.

  Head fuzzy, a little drunk from all the kissing, Sadie nodded, locking her ankles around Bo’s waist and gripping his shoulders as he carried her across the loft in sure, quick strides. Still kissing her, he passed through a screened partition but didn’t stop moving until he’d reached the bed and collapsed with her onto the mattress.

  All around Sadie, from every side, his scent filled her. The subtle tang of sweat mixed with the spice of his soap, sun-warmed leather and the breeze off the lake. Sadie lay beneath Bo on his bed and breathed him in, shivering at the contrast of being pressed between cool crisp sheets and hot muscled man.

  The whole time he’d been carrying her, Bo hadn’t broken their kiss, but now, he tore his mouth from hers, only to press more kisses along the curve of her jaw. His beard tickled her skin as he bent his head and slowly licked down the column of her throat.

  Then his mouth was moving again, face buried in her breasts. Sadie closed her eyes and sifted her hands through the cool, silky strands of his hair, cradling his head as he suckled her through the thin layer of cotton. She moaned and arched her back, offering more of herself. He responded instantly, tugging at the neckline of her dress with his fingers, nipping at her with his teeth.

  It wasn’t enough.

  With a growl, Bo sat back and yanked her dress off her shoulders. She wriggled, helping him pull the sleeves down her arms until, at last, she was free, the top of her dress bunched around her waist. He bent over her, palms pressed into the mattress on either side of her as he feasted on her breasts, his mouth hot and hungry.

  Sadie was hungry too. Starving. A ravenous ache was building at her core, a yawning emptiness needing to be filled. Jolts of electricity pulsed through her with each tug of his lips on her nipple. She skimmed her palms down the planes of his back, relishing the stretch and pull of his muscles. Needing more of him, Sadie reached between them, feeling for his belt. The clasp slipped open easily, and for the second time that night, she found herself unzipping Bo’s pants.

  He released her breast and sat up, eyes hooded as he stared down at her, knees locked against her hips. With slow, deliberate movements, Bo took over, gripping the belt and sliding it through the loops of his jeans. The shush of the leather as it glided across the denim was an erotic whisper, a hint of what was to come.

  Eager to touch him again, Sadie reached for the opening of his fly, but he stopped her.

  “No, abeja, not this time.” He took hold of both her hands, wrapping the belt around her wrists.

  Sadie sucked in a breath at the kiss of leather on her skin.

  Bo paused. “Are you okay with this?”

  She stared up at him. Was she okay with this? Was she okay with any of this? Not just being tied up by Bo, but being here, in his bed, with him. There was the edge of that cliff again. Need and excitement roiled through her, and the answer tore from her lips, reckless and desperate. “Yes.”

  “Good.” Bo cinched the belt tighter until it was snug. He raised her arms over her head, wrapping the other end of the belt to the metal rail lining his headboard. “Still with me?”

  She nodded, heart pounding in her chest.

  “I need to hear you say it, abeja.” His eyes pinned her to the mattress, dark and intense.

  “I’m with you.” Her voice tremored with anticipation, words barely more than a whisper. She loved hearing him call her that. Every time Bo used his nickname for her, a shiver of pleasure rippled inside her. It was like smelling chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven. The promise of something warm and sweet and delicious.

  “Good,” he said again. “Because if those clever hands of yours were free, I don’t think I’d make it long enough to do all the things I want to do with you.” His voice dropped to a low growl. “Do to you.”

  “Oh?” she breathed.

  “Mm-hmm.” Bo looked her over, as if debating where to start, what to do first. He stood and reached for her dress, still bunched at her waist, slipping it over her hips and down her legs, letting it drop to the floor.

  Having lost the rest of her clothes earlier, Sadie was completely bare to his gaze. Bo hovered at the edge of the bed, staring down at her. Even if she had the urge to cover herself, she couldn’t, not with her hands tied the way they were.

  But to her surprise, Sadie wasn’t embarrassed at all. The way he was looking at her, eyes flickering with appreciation, made Sadie feel beautiful. Made her want him to look at her, admire her. His gaze continued to roam over her body, the weight of it like a caress. Her skin tingled, nerve endings firing as surely as if he’d touched her.

  The recessed space that formed his bedroom was filled with shadows, but the light coming in from the other side of the panel, coupled with the glow from the city beyond the window, allowed her to see him well enough as Bo slid his fingers into the waistband of his jeans and cupped himself. Eyes trained on his movements, Sadie watched as he took his thick shaft in both hands, one fist on top of the other.

  “You like this, don’t you?” he asked, circling the base of his cock with his fingers. “You like watching me.”

  She nodded. Her heart was racing, breath coming short and fast as she continued to stare at him. Keeping a hand on his cock, Bo eased his jeans over his hips. Once his pants were on the floor and he was naked, Sadie licked her lips.

  Soft wicked laughter drifted over her. “Oh, my sweet abeja. I do like how much you enjoy watching me do this.” His voice was a low rumble as he continued to stroke himself. “But I think you’re going to enjoy watching me do something else even better.”

  And with that, he released his cock and dropped to his knees at the edge of the bed. Sadie stared down the length of her own body, meeting his eyes above the juncture of her thighs. Gaze never leaving hers, he spread her legs and began to lick her.

  Oh my God. Oh, dear God. Sadie wanted to close her eyes but couldn’t seem to make herself. She couldn’t look away, couldn’t even blink. Somehow, the way he was staring at her heightened everything he was doing. She felt a thousand times more sensitive, each lazy stroke of his tongue making her body spasm in a mini orgasm.

  Hot and aching, she was desperate for more of him. She wanted to hold his cock in both her hands and touch him the way he had, but she couldn’t, her arms were still trapped over her head, belted to the bedframe.

  Bo had no such restrictions, and when he thrust a finger deep inside her, his movements swift and sure while his tongue continued to flick over her clit, Sadie shut her eyes and let herself take the pleasure he was giving her.

  “So. Fucking. Sweet,” Bo ground out, the words coming in harsh pants.

  Legs still shaking with aftershocks, Sadie lifted her head and met his gaze.

  Smiling up at her, mouth wet, Bo’s tongue darted out and he licked his upper lip.

  Sadie shivered as if she’d felt the stroke of that tongue up the center of her body. She moaned, welcoming him as he climbed back onto the bed in a slow, primal crawl. His thick, hard heat brushed against her thigh, her belly, her chest. Straddling her torso, Bo hovered above her, palming a breast in each hand.

  As she watched, Bo fitted himself against her chest. His fingers kneaded her flesh, plumping her small globes, pushing them together as he slid his shaft in the tight space between. Her body trembled. The friction
of his silken skin gliding back and forth, the way the calluses on his hands scraped her sensitive nipples as he cupped her, grinding himself against her … after all that had already happened, all he’d done to her, Sadie didn’t think it possible, but she got even wetter.

  Chin pressed to her sternum, she kept her gaze locked on the motion of his body, watching how, with each upward thrust of his hips, the tip of his cock came closer to her mouth. Unable to resist, she reached out with her tongue, tasting him on his next pass.

  Bo froze. “Is that what you want?” he asked, voice rough with excitement, laced with lust. His eyes were no more than shadows in the dim light, but she could see his mouth clearly, saw the flash of white teeth as he smiled down at her. He shifted on the bed, moving even closer to her mouth. “You want to taste me?”

  She nodded. He was so close now, the movement caused her mouth to brush along his length. Sadie jerked her hands, needing to touch him. But they were tied tight. So she touched him with her lips and tongue instead, feeling him the only way she could.

  “That’s good,” Bo told her, pressing into her. She opened her mouth, sucking him in. “So good,” he groaned, a deep guttural sound she could feel like a throbbing pulse all the way through his body and into hers.

  “I want to fuck your mouth,” Bo rasped. He pulled back, then thrust again, just a little bit, not too much, careful not to go too far. “Would you like that?”

  In wordless assent, Sadie nodded and opened her lips wide, scoring him with her teeth as he pushed deeper into her mouth. She felt him shiver, and did it again, trailing her teeth along the delicate ridge of his flesh.

  “F-f-f-uck.” He pulled back, grappling with the belt still wrapped around her wrists.

  With a violent tug, he freed her, and Sadie reached for Bo, touching him the way she’d been dying to since the moment she’d watched him touch himself.

  She stroked him hard and fast, then long and slow. Just for the hell of it. Because she could. Because she loved knowing she had the power to drive him wild.

  But Bo had the power to drive her wild too. As he neared his climax, hips pumping faster, cock jerking in her hands, he reached between them and found her slick heat once more, taking Sadie over the edge with him.

  CHAPTER 15

  BO LAY ON his side, watching the first streaks of early morning sunlight play in the wild thatch of blond hair on the pillow next to his. Sadie. In his bed. Sound asleep, sprawled out on her side, sheet skimming the hills and valleys of her lithe form. The slope of her shoulder, the dip at her waist, the rise of her hips.

  He wasn’t sure how long he’d been watching her sleep. He wasn’t sure what time it was now. And he didn’t care. Bo could stay like this all day, lying next to her until the room filled with shadows and it was dark again. His chest tightened as visions of last night stole his breath.

  The things he’d done to her. The things she’d done to him. The things they’d done together in this bed. But they hadn’t done everything. Whether intentional or not, there’d been a line they hadn’t crossed.

  Glancing up, Bo saw his belt was still wrapped around the brass bar of his headboard, buckle glinting above Sadie’s head. He’d finally freed her hands as he’d been on the edge of exploding, finishing in the delicious grip of her clever, wicked fingers.

  When they both lay spent, quiet and still, he’d placed a kiss on the inside of each wrist before pulling her close, his body spooning hers. The feel of her curves tucked into him—the delicate arch of her spine brushing his chest, the soft firm swell of her bottom nestled snugly against his hips—it was all so familiar, Bo wanted to weep. It was absurd, made him think of corny, sappy things. Like how she was the missing piece of him, what he needed to be whole.

  Sometime in the night, long after her loose limbs, quiet breaths, and slow steady heartbeat told him she’d fallen asleep, Bo had uncoiled himself from around her, rolled onto his back and stared at the rough beams bracketing his ceiling, trying to make sense of things.

  Last night, he and Sadie had come crashing together like summer lightning, rolling in fast and furious. But now that the storm had passed, he wasn’t sure where they stood, or where they should go from here.

  Did she want more from him? Did he want to give her more? Bo was an all-or-nothing kind of guy. He liked to deal in absolutes, and he didn’t do things halfway. If he started falling for Sadie again, he’d have to make a choice. Either go all in or get the fuck out.

  Slowly, listening to the soft hush of Sadie’s breathing, Bo’s mind finally started to clear—or at least go blank. He closed his eyes and began to drift off. He was on the verge of sinking into sleep when something batted him on the shoulder. Something sharp and furry. Bo turned his head to the side and cracked one eye open. Clark’s mustached face hovered directly in front of him, so close that when Bo exhaled, the cat’s whiskers fluttered.

  Clark, you asshole. Bo gave the cat a one-eyed glare before closing his eye again, rolling onto his stomach, and burying his head in the pillow.

  But the cat would not be ignored. A moment later, Bo felt the prickle of four paws on his back, warm fur tickling his neck. “Clark, if you bite my ear, I swear to Christ, I’ll turn you into a saddlebag,” Bo threatened, his morning voice a low, scratchy rumble.

  Expecting a cranky meow, Bo was unprepared for the feminine giggle that sounded from behind him.

  Neither was Clark, apparently. The cat jumped, letting out a yowl as he pawed at Bo’s bare back.

  “Ouch! Hey, knock it off.” Bo rolled sideways again, and the cat squawked with displeasure, scrambling off Bo’s back and taking up residence on his head instead. “This is not an improvement,” he muttered, swiping at Clark’s tail as it threatened to suffocate him.

  Another giggle rippled across the sheets.

  Bo shoved at the cat, trying to see around the mound of fur.

  “You don’t know how badly I want to make a comment about having a face full of pussy right now,” Sadie said, her voice deliciously husky with sleep and laced with humor.

  He chuckled, amused and turned on at the same time. “If you do, then I might have to make a comment about how I had the same problem last night.”

  She gasped in mock outrage.

  At least, he thought her outrage was fake, he still couldn’t see her to read her expression. “That’s enough, Clark. Get your furry ass off my face.” With effort, Bo pried the clinging cat off his head, careful to avoid the flailing claws.

  The cat let out a howl of fury and leapt out of Bo’s grasp, landing on the bed between the two humans.

  “Aw, he’s just staking his claim,” Sadie said, sounding like she was on the verge of bursting into giggles again as she watched Clark paw at the covers and settle himself squarely in front of Bo.

  Face finally free of feline interference, Bo studied Sadie. With her attention focused on Clark, he felt safe to look his fill. She lay on her side, facing him, elbow tucked beneath her ear as she rested her head on the pillow opposite his. One leg stuck out of the blankets, sheets wrapped around her middle and tucked tight above her breasts, the bare skin of her shoulders glowing softly in the pale morning light. God, she was beautiful. He loved everything about her, from the peek of naked toes to the wild spikes of blond hair that stuck out every which way.

  Bo wanted to reach out and run his hands through the sexy, sleepy mass, but he held back. “What did it feel like?” he asked, before he could think better of it. “To … you know…” He pointed at his own head. “Cut it all off.”

  Sadie shifted on the pillow, glancing up at him in surprise.

  Maybe it had been a bad idea to bring this up, but it was too late now, he’d have to press forward. “It bothered you. Didn’t it?”

  “Um,” she hesitated, mouth working. “Yeah. It was harder than I expected,” she admitted with an embarrassed little laugh. “This is going to sound shallow, but I was afraid I wouldn’t be pretty with short hair.”

  “You’re still pre
tty,” he assured her.

  “Thanks, but I wasn’t fishing for compliments.” She gave him a half-hearted smile. “Don’t get me wrong, I like hearing I’m pretty.”

  “It’s the truth.” He lifted one shoulder. No. The truth was, she was gorgeous. Knock a man to his knees breathtakingly beautiful. But Bo sensed something more lurking beneath that lovely surface. “Is that really all that was bothering you?”

  “Well,” she began, then hesitated, fiddling nervously, fingers twisting in the sheets.

  An undercurrent of emotion drifted around her; he could feel the ebb and flow of it, an urge to be pulled into deep water. Bo waded in slowly. Tentatively. “It must have been hard, undergoing such a dramatic change.”

  She nodded mutely.

  Bo waited, knowing better than to push her. Instead, he lay still, giving her time to collect her thoughts.

  Finally, she took a breath, like she was preparing to dive in. “It’s something Sylvia said. About cutting away regrets.”

  “Do you have regrets?” he ventured to ask.

  “Do you?” she shot back.

  Definitely entering deep water here. Now he was sucking in a breath. “I think everyone has regrets.” Bo pressed an elbow into his pillow, hand propping up his head. “Wanna tell me about it?”

  “Not really.”

  “You used to tell me everything,” he said quietly.

  Her eyes snapped up to his and Bo worried he’d overstepped.

  “That was a long time ago,” she finally said, turning her attention back to his cat.

  Bo got the hint. He watched as she made funny faces, attempting to mimic Clark’s cranky scowl.

  “You really do look like Clark Gable.” Cautiously, Sadie reached out with one finger, stroking the stripe of fur beneath the cat’s nose. “Like a little Rhett Butler.”

  “Accurate,” Bo agreed. “Since frankly, he doesn’t give a damn.”

  Sadie bust out laughing, peals of feminine giggles that made Clark recoil. The cat meowed peevishly and scrambled off the mattress, bounding out of sight.