by Avery Flynn
“Hadley,” he called out, his voice strained.
She stilled her movements but kept her fingers wrapped around his girth. “Did you want me to stop?”
His jaw squared. “Fuck no.”
“Glad to see we can actually agree on a lot of things.” She kissed the tip. “Like that.” She sucked him in, taking him in until he hit the back of her throat again and again and again. “And that.”
He was so hard in her hand, smooth, warm iron, as she stroked up and down. God, it felt good to see him like this, his eyes closed from the pleasure of it all, the fight he was obviously waging not to come in her hand as she kissed and licked and sucked him. There was a sense of power in it all and a special joy from giving this kind of pleasure to someone she loved.
The realization hit hard right there in that moment, and she pulled back, jolted by the shock of it.
“Are you okay?” Will asked, concern thick in his voice. “We can stop.”
That was the last thing she wanted. What she needed was for this to go on forever. All of it. Him. Her. Them together.
She was so wet and aching for him that even a second more of this was going to drive her over the edge into insanity. “I need you inside me.”
He tensed. “I don’t have any more condoms.”
“I’m on the pill.” No condom wasn’t usually something she did, but with Will, things were different.
“Are you sure?” he asked, his tone carefully neutral.
As if either of them could deny how much they both wanted this right now. “Have you been tested lately?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “I’m clear.”
“Me too.”
He kissed her, rolling them over so she was underneath him again and then pulled back, looking down at her as if he were seeing her for the very first time. “What is it about you that makes this so fucking perfect?”
“The fact that I’m not.” The words that she would have fought to her last breath to never utter out loud came freely, and it was like the last of that weight she’d been carrying since her dad’s suicide melted away.
Will dipped his head and gave her another kiss. “Neither am I.” He slid into her, filling her completely. “Damn, Hadley. I just—”
Whatever he was going to say next was lost to his sharp intake of breath when he started to move. That was okay; it wasn’t like her brain was processing anything but the feel of him as he withdrew and thrust forward, each stroke taking her higher. Later, they’d have all the time in the world to talk. Tonight was for showing herself that everything had changed—she’d changed—and there was no going back.
…
Will had to hold himself perfectly still. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. He’d be shocked if his heart was still beating. He was lost in Hadley and had never felt more found. Then she moved her hips, the world came back into focus, he sucked in a needy breath, and his pulse beat in his ears. That certainty, though? It didn’t go away, just became stronger with each stroke.
“You feel so good,” he said, reaching down and cupping her ass so he could lift her and change the angle, driving deeper. “Fuck.”
“Oh my God, do that again.”
She only had to ask. Whatever she wanted, he’d give. Withdrawing almost fully, he waited a beat before pushing forward, his hard length sliding into her, rubbing against all the sensitive nerves bundled just inside her opening. Again and again, he thrust deep into her hot, tight core. His eyes rolled back with pleasure as pressure began building in his spine. Her hips met his every move, her words made incoherent by lust.
“Hadley.” Her name came out in a strangled groan.
He couldn’t hold on much longer. Settling back so he was on his knees, the hard coils of the pullout couch’s mattress bending under his weight, he lifted her up so only her shoulders were on the bed. Holding her hips, he fucked her, watching as her tits bounced with each thrust and mesmerized by each lusty moan and desperate demand for more coming from her. Fuck. He was so close, dancing on the edge, but he couldn’t come yet.
“Don’t stop,” she said as she reached down and slid her fingers between her swollen, glistening folds, circling her clit.
Like there was any chance of that. Her fingers moved so quickly, her core getting tighter and tighter around his cock until her whole body tensed as she came around his dick with a cry. His balls tightened and he buried himself to the hilt and came so hard, he wasn’t sure if he’d ever come down from the high.
Chest heaving, he rolled onto his back, wrapped a hand around Hadley’s waist, and pulled her close. He was fucking floating right here with her on a pullout couch in a half-renovated cabin in the middle of nowhere. At absolutely no time in his life had he ever felt more at home.
“I’ll be right back.” She slipped off the mattress and headed toward the bathroom.
As he lay there watching his future walk down the hallway, he had never been so relieved that his usually 100-percent-correct instincts about someone’s ulterior motives had been completely off when it came to Hadley Donavan.
Chapter Eighteen
Hadley woke up the next morning with a smile on her face and a note on the pillow where Will’s head should have been.
Hated to leave you when you were still snoring, but I had to go take care of some cowboy things. Counting down until I can see you at the barn later.
XOXO,
W
Okay, if someone had laid a cool billion in front of her and asked her all she had to do to keep it was say whether Will Holt was an Xs and Os kind of guy, she wouldn’t have hesitated. The “no” would have been out on the next breath. The reality—again—was far different from what she’d always figured. Damn, had she been wrong about that man.
Just how wrong was pretty much all she thought about in the shower as she got ready for the day’s pre-wedding family togetherness. Okay, she had about a million personal mental viewings of everything that had happened last night, too. What could she say, when everything finally started to fall into place with the hottest guy she’d ever counted as her worst nemesis, it was pretty impossible not to bask in it.
By the time she walked into the old barn fully decorated for the wedding reception the next day, her cheeks had started to hurt from smiling so much. Luckily, everyone in the barn was grinning, too—weddings had a way of doing that to people. Everyone was gathered up by the dais where the bride and groom would sit along with the bridal party during the reception. There were old-fashioned soft-glow light bulbs hanging from the rafters; delicate hand-folded paper birds sat on all the place settings, each one a unique piece of art; and then there were the bright prairie wildflowers already in mason jars etched with the date in the center of each table. It really was an Instagramable scene: the old and the new wedded together into something that was all about new beginnings.
Or maybe it was just that Hadley was still on a post-coital high, but she doubted it. Everything was just about as close to perfect as possible—including the fact that the guy with hair that was aggressively slicked back into a nearly impossibly short ponytail had to be Adalyn’s fiancé, Derek. Breathing a sigh of relief for her sister—and still feeling more than a little floaty—Hadley joined everyone.
“It looks amazing,” she said, giving her sister a hug and then turning to Derek and holding out her hand. “It’s so nice to finally meet you. I’m Hadley.”
His hand was damp as he shook hers. “Yeah, work’s been crazy.”
Before she could ask him what he did or how excited he was for the wedding, his cell rang. He held up a finger and backed away as he answered it.
Okay, that was…something, to put it nicely. What in the hell was going on with Adalyn’s fiancé? That, of course, was not a question she could ask out loud. So instead, she turned to her sister and gave her another hug as she searched for the right words to say.
“Busy,” Adalyn finished, her tone flat.
“Well, yeah,” Hadley rushed on, wanting to smooth the awkwardness for her sister—some habits died hard. “But I guess he’s getting everything sorted so that after tomorrow, there won’t be any interruptions.”
“No, we have to delay the honeymoon for this work conference thing he has.” Adalyn didn’t sound very broken up about it, but there was a tension drawing her shoulders tight. “And honestly, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since last night about my life, priorities, and what I really want.”
“And that is?”
Her sister smiled at her, looking anything but weirded-out by Derek’s behavior, the wedding tomorrow, or anything else. “I’m still trying to figure that out.”
She pulled her sister into another tight hug. “Well, no matter what it is, you know we’ll be there for you.”
Adalyn squeezed her back and then abruptly let go. “Oh my God.”
“What?” Hadley turned around to see what her sister was staring at.
Will stood in the open barn doors, the light shining around him like a movie spotlight, but this time he didn’t look like someone from a cowboy-of-the-week movie. This time he looked like the real thing, from the Wranglers that clung to his muscular thighs to the soft but obviously worn long-sleeve shirt to the scuffed-up cowboy boots to that black hat she was going to forever associate with hotness for the rest of her life. This was where she normally would have been ultra-concerned about appearances—about not seeming too eager or too interested or too anything that actually meant something and hung back. Not anymore. She strutted over to where Will stood with Aunt Louise.
She let out a low, appreciative whistle. “What happened to you?”
“Aunt Louise gave me a makeover,” he said as he reached for her hand and then intertwined their fingers.
Looking every bit as smug as she did when her team won family game night, Aunt Louise said, “Had some of Harold’s old things in the back of the closet and they fit perfectly. Knew there was a reason why I liked your fella from the get-go.”
Okay, Hadley was going to skip right on over the part where Will reminded Aunt Louise of Uncle Jim. That was just too ew.
“You look amazing,” she said, going up on her tiptoes to give him a quick kiss. “I gotta admit, those jeans look good on you.”
He leaned down and whispered in her ear. “Don’t suppose we can ditch the group dance lesson and head back to the cabin?”
His words made her skin sizzle, a teasing little brush of anticipation dancing across her nerve endings. “Believe me, I wish we could, but Adalyn has her heart set on this bridal party dance. She’s been talking about it to me for weeks.”
And before she lost the battle and agreed to go back to the cabin, she slipped her arm into the crook of his elbow and they walked across the barn to the area that had been set up as the dance floor. For the next hour, they laughed and moved as Knox and Adalyn taught everyone the moves to what was a mix of line dancing and two-stepping to this old country song about finding love where it was least expected. While Derek remained standing in the corner on his phone the entire time, Will fit right in, twirling Aunt Louise, making jokes with Weston, and pulling Hadley in close for a few extra whirls around the dance floor. Life wouldn’t be like this back in Harbor City—after all, it wasn’t like people in his income bracket were known for having barn dances. Still, Will could carry it off.
“I think you won the bet,” Hadley said as the music stopped. “You’re practically a cowboy.”
He tipped his hat at her. “Thank ya, darlin’.”
Then he dipped his head down and kissed her. For a second, the rest of the world disappeared and it was just the two of them again, fitting together like they were made for each other. By the time they stepped apart, her heart was going a million miles an hour.
“Your sister called you.”
Hadley blinked several times, trying to come back down to reality. “She did?”
“Yep.” He lowered his mouth to her ear. “But don’t worry, we’ll be finishing that later.”
As tempting as it was to make later right now, Hadley knew their time was coming. Right now, she was actually looking forward to getting in on some family time with her mom and sister doing God knows what beyond a whole lot of togetherness.
…
Will took a glass of sun tea, the condensation on the outside of the glass cool on his fingers, and stood off to the side watching Hadley talk with her mom and Adalyn. He was already thinking about taking her to his favorite diner in Harbor City, the one with these phenomenal shakes and a dog that very much was not allowed to hang out in the booths but did anyway. Then there would be the dates they’d have in the Holt Enterprises suite at Ice Knights Arena.
Considering how much she hollered during his just-for-fun rugby matches, there was no way she’d be calm during a hockey game. He couldn’t wait to see her get all riled up. Of course, he’d take her to the Black Hearts Gallery to check out the new artists that the gallery owner Everly always managed to find. He’d want Hadley’s opinion because she’d be looking at the art every day when she moved into his penthouse, and he really wanted her to love it.
Was he getting ahead of himself? Definitely, but he was a man who always had a vision and a gut feeling about things. That whole Hadley-is-a-gold-digger thing? That was just the exception that proved the rule.
For the first time in about as long as he could remember, that always-there edginess that acted as an early warning signal for the bad shit about to come seemed too quiet. He wasn’t that kid he’d been when his parents died and left him and Web in the care of their no-time-for-kids grandmother. Nor was he the guy who had been so distracted by the empty space in his life that he’d let Mia fill it before he realized that she was really only there for his money. He knew Hadley was different. How? The alarm bells in his head had finally quieted. If anyone had told him a week ago that he’d feel like this, he would have laughed his ass off. Now, he’d never been more glad to be wrong, even if it was unsettling as hell.
As he was contemplating how weird life was turning out to be, Weston came over and poured himself a glass of sun tea.
He glanced between Will and Hadley. “Stare any harder and people are going to think you two are actually a thing.”
Of course her brother picked just the moment Will had taken a drink to lay it down that he and Hadley had been faking everyone out—right up until they weren’t. Shock made his throat malfunction and the tea go down the wrong pipe. He ended up spluttering for breath while Hadley’s mountain of a brother smacked him hard between the shoulder blades.
Weston chuckled. “There’s no reason to freak out; she spilled the beans last night.”
“She failed to mention that to me.”
Hadley’s brother took a long drink of iced tea. “Must have slipped her mind when she told you about how she’s finally starting up her own consulting business.”
Something scratched against the back of Will’s brain, that you’re-about-to-get-fucked-over alert. When he’d explained his “assumptions” to Hadley, she’d acted as if she’d understood that always-on-edge feeling that a person just couldn’t shake and what it meant when he said it wasn’t there with her.
But what if what she’d really picked up on was a vulnerability that he hadn’t meant to admit to—one that a smart hustler like Hadley could exploit? It’s what he’d do in the boardroom. He’d discover the weakness and find a way to use it to get what he wanted. Of course, he was doing it to improve the company and the lives of those who worked there. She was doing it to fatten her bottom line.
The iced tea sloshed in his gut and his shoulders tensed until he could feel the pinch all through his body. He wanted to hurl.
“Now that she’s finally got the money to set up shop,” Weston we
nt on, “there’s nothing that will stop her. Hadley’s always been determined and ambitious like that. She deserves to be happy in all parts of her life, don’t you think?”
All Will could hear beyond the white noise blaring in his ears was Hadley saying last night that she was done pretending.
Is this what she meant? Had she finally gotten the cash from Web without having to secure a wedding ring first? And was she really on the pill? Mia had thrown a fake pregnancy at him—and he’d told Hadley. Was she one-upping that and going for the real thing? Why go through all the trouble of faking falling in love, waiting for a wedding, and then having to deal with the person long enough to get the good alimony payout when a surprise baby would accomplish the same thing?
Web had said there was something he needed to tell Will about Hadley—was it a warning? He’d told Will to have a good time. He’d never said Will should fall in love.
An icy certainty chilled him from the inside out and his body—making him feel a bit like it belonged to someone else—started to loosen up. He had to hand it to Hadley, it was a helluva plan. He’d never seen it coming. Too bad for her that he did now.
Finishing off his sun tea, Will eyed the woman who’d gotten past all his defenses and slid the shiv right between his ribs without him ever seeing it coming.
“She definitely deserves something,” he told Weston as he set his empty glass on the table and headed for Hadley.
Keeping the smile on his face was work, but he managed as he strolled across the room to where Hadley stood with her mom and sister. Hooking his arm around her waist and pulling her in close, he looked down at her as if she wasn’t due an acting award.
“Do you guys mind if I steal Hadley for a little bit?” he asked.
“We’re done here,” Stephanie said. “Go ahead, she’s all yours.”