One song bled into another, then into another. I was so hard it hurt, and from her blown pupils and flushed cheeks, it was safe to assume she felt the same way.
Eventually, when I couldn’t take it anymore, I took hold of her hands that’d been roaming my chest and bent my head to her ear. “Do you want to get out of here?”
She wound her fingers through mine and nodded. “Please.”
Letting go of only one of her hands, I led her off the dance floor and over to their table to get her purse. We made a quick stop to pick up my jacket at our table. Archer had joined the girls at the table behind ours, and he grinned as he gave me a quick salute.
“See you tomorrow, boss.” He glanced at Brittany, his gaze lingering on our joined hands before he looked back up at me. “Or maybe not. Have fun.”
I rolled my eyes at him when he winked, resisting the urge to flip him off and reaching for the damn jacket instead. Warm air greeted us when we walked out of the bar, but it still felt cool considering how heated things had gotten between us on that dance floor.
While I was eager to see where this would lead, she had a boyfriend, and with what happened after we’d kissed, I didn’t feel comfortable diving in without talking to her first. Which meant we needed to dial things back a notch.
“Want to take a walk?” I asked.
Brittany smiled but looked anywhere other than at me. “Sure. Moore Square isn’t far. Have you been there? Since you’ve been back, I mean.”
“No, I haven’t had much time to go around town yet. I’ve been meaning to, but it’s been a bit of a hurricane.”
She chuckled. “Not even just a whirlwind, huh? A full-on hurricane?”
“Yep. It turns out that taking over a multinational company and moving back in with one’s parents in your thirties isn’t a walk in the park.”
A quiet but comfortable minute passed between us. The glow of the streetlights lit our way, the light mottled in places where it shone through the oak leaves of the trees lining the street.
Our fingers were linked together loosely, and neither of us made a move to pull away. Brittany glanced up just as I looked at her, and our gazes connected for a brief second while we walked.
Her pupils were back to normal, but the heat in her eyes had been replaced by something a lot less pleasant. Apprehension.
“How’s it treating you? Being back. I can’t imagine it’s easy. For someone like you to say it’s not a walk in the park must mean it’s ridiculously difficult.”
“Someone like me?”
She nodded as we turned the first corner away from the bar. “You’re not easily intimidated. Unless that’s changed and you’re the cowering kind now, but it doesn’t seem that way.”
I laughed, considering as I caught my first glimpse of the square that used to be part of my old stomping grounds. The historic park downtown and the surrounding cafés, the market, and shops buzzed with life even at this hour.
There was a lot of nightlife around here, and with the square itself often being the venue where entertainment took place, it was somewhere we’d spent a lot of time back in the day. I still loved the mix of old and new, the cobblestone streets juxtaposed by the modern renovations of the area around it.
“I suppose I’m still not the cowering kind,” I replied to her earlier comment. “I’ve just never thought of myself as not being easily intimidated. When I met your principal and found out he was your boyfriend, I felt pretty darn intimidated. Not by him, but by the relationship you have with him. How is he?”
She stopped walking, her teeth sinking into her lower lip while her eyes darted around like she was searching for an escape. I frowned at the sudden change in her demeanor, but it made sense when she rattled off her next sentence.
“We broke up,” she blurted out. “I broke up with him. You don’t have to feel pressured or anything. He’s an ass. I didn’t do it because you’re back and I’m expecting anything from you. It just wasn’t working, but I wasn’t planning on telling you because I didn’t want you to think…”
There was enough light around between the streetlights and the neon signs for the restaurants and bars all over that I saw how flushed she’d suddenly become. I moved around her when she trailed off, bringing my one hand up to cup her cheek and squeezing her fingers with the other, a grin begging to break free on my lips.
She looked slightly panicked when she finally lifted her eyes up to mine and let her head fall back in the process. “Why are you looking at me like that? This isn’t funny.”
A soft chuckle came out of me as I lifted one shoulder. “It’s a little funny.”
“No, it’s not.” Her eyes narrowed. “How is it funny?”
I stroked my thumb along the soft skin of her face, my eyes firmly on hers. “It’s funny because you know I never do anything I don’t want to do, and yet you’re worried about what I’m going to think about you breaking up with your boyfriend. That it would make me feel like you expect something from me.”
“I still don’t see how it’s funny,” she grumbled, but there was no real fight in her voice or in her posture. “Do you honestly not think that I broke up with him for you?”
“Nope, but is it wrong of me to hope that I had at least a little something to do with it?” I laughed when her eyes went comically round. “Relax, Brit. I’m not putting any pressure on you either. It’s just… that kiss was a great fucking kiss. I’d like to think you feel the same way about it, and if you do, that I might still have a shot here. I didn’t have a shot when you had a boyfriend.”
“What about that other girl?” she asked, brows drawing together in confusion as she made a face at me. “I doubt she’d be happy that you’re talking about having a shot with someone else.”
“What girl?” I made a face right back at her until I remembered. “Oh, Faye. Right. I forgot about her.”
Brittany’s eyebrows shot up so high that I had to laugh again. Before she could say anything, I tightened my grip on her hand and shook my head. “Faye is nobody to me. She’s a woman my mom is trying to push on me. I didn’t even know we were having lunch with her. Selena sprung it on me. I thought we were going to a doctor’s appointment with my father.”
“Selena was there?” Something strange flashed in her eyes when she said my mother’s name, but she blinked it away. “She wasn’t in the photos.”
“That’s because she planned it that way.” I drew in a deep breath through my nostrils. “It’s all about the PR. That’s why she’s trying to push us together.”
“Selena always has been pushy,” she said after a pause, but then she smiled at me again, and the hope in it nearly melted my previously cold, black heart. “So you’re not seeing Faye?”
“Nope.” I laughed and pulled her into my arms, holding her gaze before mine dropped down to her lips. They parted, and the tip of her tongue came out to wet them, leaving them shiny and inviting. “Trust me when I say that you’re the only woman I’ve been thinking about.”
“Really?”
I nodded. “Really.”
We surged together at the same time, our mouths meeting in a frantic kiss as her arms looped around my neck and mine wound around her waist. She tasted like salt and tequila, but I’d always been a fan of margaritas. And of her.
“Do you want to come back to my place?” she murmured between kisses, her voice breathy and filled with need. “I know it’s forward, but—”
“I like it when you’re forward.” Our lips came together again, and I dropped my forehead against hers, letting the moment linger before wrenching myself away from her. “Let’s go.”
Since Archer and I had been planning on drinking, I’d left my car at the office. Brittany had caught a ride with her friend, so neither of us had to go back to the bar to pick up a vehicle.
There were plenty of cabs around, and I flagged down the first one I saw. She gave the cabbie her address, and then we were off.
I barely had time to look at her place before h
er lips were on mine again as soon as the door shut behind us. Any resistance that might’ve been hovering in the back of my mind vanished. I wanted this too badly to even think, let alone to consider the possible repercussions.
In my wildest fucking dreams, I never thought I’d get to do this with her again. Taking it slow and getting to know each other again stopped being an option at the first quiet moan that escaped her.
Neither of us broke away even to take a breath. We were all hands and mouths as we stumbled through her darkened house, presumably heading toward her bedroom. A few times, we crashed into furniture or walls, but I didn’t hear anything breaking, so I figured I could help her straighten up again later.
My fingers found a rectangular metal tab at her side, and when I tugged on it, it turned out my suspicions had been correct. It was her zipper, and it slid free without any trouble at all. I still had to lift it over her head since it had sleeves and not just straps, but that was easy enough.
While I pulled the fabric up, her fingers worked on the buttons of my shirt. She pushed it off my shoulders a few seconds later, and then I toed off my shoes while she freed me from the confines of my pants.
We left the clothes where they fell, both left in only our underwear when we finally made it to her bed. Still without breaking apart, I rolled us so she was on top of me, groaning when I felt the heat of her core through the material still separating us.
Somehow, some way, she felt even better than I remembered, and I wasn’t even inside her yet. My hips jerked, thrusting as my hands tangled into her hair and I held her to me.
Being with her again felt so fucking good that I was already on edge, but there was nothing in this world that could stop or force me to slow down right now. This was happening, and if I had my way, it would happen again, and then again, and then again. Not even just tonight either. Tomorrow and the day after that, and every day after that for as long as she would let me have her.
16
BRITTANY
Tristin was rock hard between my legs, his hips moving as he kissed me like he’d die if he stopped. Or maybe that was just the way I felt and I was projecting those feelings onto him. Whatever it was, I hadn’t ever felt this level of need or urgency.
Things had been intense between us when we’d been together before, but it hadn’t come close to what it felt like now. His lips were firm and sure, his body harder and bigger than ever before.
There was no fumbling, no pausing, and no uncertainty. We didn’t laugh, play around, or have to keep an ear out for parents or in the case of it having been at his house, servants who could come through the door at any moment.
It was just us, our need for each other lighting me up from the inside out and making me feel downright wanton. There was no going slow and steady toward the finish line. It was a race, a sprint, but if everything went according to plan, we would both be winners tonight.
His long fingers reached around my back and unhooked my bra without any hesitation at all. I remembered the first time he’d tried that, and it had definitely become much smoother movements since.
Not wanting to think about all the practice he must’ve gotten over the years, I lifted myself up on my knees when he reached for my panties and kicked them free as soon as I could.
My mouth left his to kiss a path down his jaw, meeting the prickly stubble that had grown there during the day. It didn’t put me off, though. In fact, it just reminded me of how much we’d both grown, spurring me on to move further down.
I kissed his neck and grazed my teeth over his collarbones, licked and sucked at his nipples as my fingers hooked into the waistband of his underwear. He sucked in a sharp breath, trembling a little when my hand brushed over the wetness of his tip as I lifted the fabric over his straining erection.
He took over from there, his hands under my arms as he tried bringing me back up. I shook my head, my tongue tasting the skin of his abs before I flashed him a grin. “Nuh-uh. Wait your turn.”
“Fuck that,” he groaned. “I’ve waited long enough.”
Arms like a steel band around me, he hauled me up until I was sitting on his face, and his warm breath ghosted over my very slick core. I moaned, or he did, or maybe it was both of us, but the semantics didn’t really matter.
Before he could get his mouth on me and make me forget even my own name, I repositioned myself to be able to carry out my earlier mission at the same time. Since we hadn’t switched on any lights in our haste to get to my bed, it was dark in the room.
The only light came from the one fixture I had outside in the backyard. My bedroom faced the garden, and I liked being able to see the lawn and trees from my bed, so my curtains were sheer. They were drawn, but I could make out enough that I saw the arousal glistening on his smooth head.
When I took him into my mouth, he moaned my name before spreading my thighs apart with his large hands. I kept my hands on his legs for balance, my fingers stroking over the coarse hairs there as I tried to give as good as I got.
Tristin’s tongue was like magic, though. Better than anything I’d felt since, well, probably ever. When his fingers joined the party and crooked inside me just as he flicked my throbbing clit with the tip of his tongue, I had to stop. I didn’t want to hurt him, but I was pretty sure I was going to be too lost in a minute to remember not to bite or squeeze too hard.
He murmured against me, his own muscles tensing and relaxing as he drove me to the edge. “Let go for me, baby. I want to taste your sweet release before I feel it.”
“Fuck,” I ground out between clenched teeth, my head bowing even as my back arched and I strained back against him. “Since when do you talk that way?”
“Since I grew up and wasn’t too shy to tell the truth anymore,” he said in a voice that bordered on a growl. “Come for me, babe. I need to fuck you, but I’m not sure how long I’m going to last once I get inside you. Do it. I can feel how close you are.”
Well, okay, then. I hadn’t known how much dirty talk turned me on until that very moment, but as soon as his mouth was back on me, I was a goner. Such a goner that I actually screamed when I followed his command and let go.
My orgasm was so powerful that it sucked every ounce of strength out of my body, making me see nothing but bright white light and hear only a faint ringing in my ears for several minutes after it subsided. Tristin didn’t give me much time to recover, his own desperation winning out after he gently lowered me to the bed.
He was hovering over me, his dick right there when he let out a loud curse. “We need a condom.”
“Nightstand,” I panted, a little amused by the look of sheer panic that had crossed his face when he’d thought he had to get up. “Don’t worry. The box is still sealed. It’s been in there for a long time.”
He didn’t ask any questions, though his nose scrunched up for a second before he let out a heavy breath. “Fine, but we’re chucking out that box and replacing it with one I’ll bring next time.”
A shiver passed through me. “Next time?”
“Next time,” he promised, kissing me hard and then getting down to the business of protection.
It didn’t take him long, his movements jerky but lighting fast. When he settled back over me, he reached for my hands, brought his lips back to mine, and kissed me deeply as he sank into me.
Despite his worries, it turned out that I was still sensitive enough that he got me right back to the edge before we went tumbling over it together. He stretched me out in ways that were too delicious not to drive me to the brink of insanity, filled me up and rolled his pelvis against my clit at the exact moment I needed it most.
When I felt his movements becoming less rhythmic, I held him tight and chased my own release just as he found his. It was even more intense than the first one had been, the moment so intimate that I knew it would be imprinted on my mind for the rest of time.
“Wait a second,” Tristin murmured once we caught our breath. He lay with his head on my pillow and mine on
his chest, one arm hooked behind his head as he looked around. “This is your bedroom.”
“Yeah?” I frowned before poking him in the side and letting out a soft giggle. “Did you think I’d taken you to someone else’s house?”
“No.” He chuckled and glanced down at me so I could see him roll his eyes. Withdrawing his arm from behind his head, he reached out to flick on the lamp on the nightstand and propped himself up on his elbow. “I wasn’t really listening when you gave the driver your address, and then I was so wrapped up in you that I didn’t realize it was the same house. What I meant was that this is your room, the same one we spent so much time in as teenagers.”
I shrugged as I tracked his gaze when it swept around the space now bathed in muted light from behind the lampshade. It was the same room, but it had changed a lot over the years. “I took down the posters and got some new furniture.”
“You also changed the outside,” he commented, his fingers stroking lightly along the bare flesh on my shoulder. “I’d have recognized it immediately otherwise.”
Smirking playfully, I lifted my head to arch a brow at him. “Really? Because I could’ve sworn you were too busy groping me and looking at my ass while I was trying to unlock the door.”
“True.” He laughed, tickling my side as he rolled over to pin me to the bed with his upper body. His expression sobered as he stared lazily into my eyes. “I can’t believe this is the same room. Some of my favorite memories were made in here.”
“Yeah?” I smiled and ran my fingertips up and down his muscular arms, relishing the gooseflesh they left in their wake.
He kissed the tip of my nose, a lock of his dark hair falling across his forehead. “Yeah. Don’t you remember all the afternoons we spent in here pretending to study when we were actually making out? Those were some of the best times of my life.”
“Mine too,” I agreed quietly, then broke eye contact in an attempt to hide the emotions suddenly trying to overwhelm me. “We were damn good together until we weren’t.”
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