by Jenika Snow
He exhaled slowly and I shifted on the seat to face him fully. I could tell something was on his mind, but he was so tense, so closed-off from me. Finally, he shifted on the seat as well, and the soft sound of leather moving against his suit seemed loud in the small confines of his sports car.
As he stared at me, I wondered what could’ve been so important that he had to stop the car. But as I looked into his face, I could see what he was about to say was serious. That had me nervous. Was everything okay?
Was this about my father?
Was he about to tell me that he knew how I felt, could sense it, feel it?
Or maybe he was about to tell me how things couldn’t happen between us.
Every “what if” passed through my head and my entire body tightened. I tried to act calm, appear like I had my shit together. The truth was I didn’t. So, all I did was brace myself for the impact.
“I didn’t know how to say this, how to go about even bringing this up,” he finally said, his voice deep with emotion.
He was looking past me as he spoke, as if maybe he couldn’t look me in the eye when he said the words. With every passing second I grew even more convinced he was about to draw the line between us.
“But I can’t stand idly back anymore, Piper. I can’t keep how I feel inside a minute longer. Having you so close, working right beside me, knowing that all I have to do is reach out and touch you, pull you in close, has my self-control on a tightrope.” He looked at me then. “It’s snapped, Piper, and if I don’t tell you how I feel, what I want, I’m going to lose my fucking mind.”
I felt my eyes widen, knew they were probably massive saucers on my face. What Zane had just said was certainly not what I expected to hear. I’d assumed he’d keep us at a distance, break my heart even if he didn’t realize.
But no, what he just told me was my fantasy come to life. The look he gave me, the way I felt when he touched me … all of that had meant more than what was in my head.
It was real.
“Zane…” That was the only word that come out of my mouth that moment. I was so shocked, not even able to think clearly.
“Let me finish, and then you can turn me down.”
My heart stuttered at that confession. Me, turn him down? Was he insane?
“I’ve wanted you since you were eighteen, Piper. It’s wrong, I know. Not just because you’re so much younger than I am, but because you’re Liam’s daughter. This could cause issues between him and me, but I can’t stop myself from wanting you. I can’t hold back my emotions anymore.”
He lifted his hand and rubbed his eyes, as if the conversation drained him. I knew exactly how he felt. My emotions were exhausting, hiding them, trying to fight them. It was to the point where I didn’t even try anymore.
“Maybe if it was just a passing desire, I could control how I felt for you.” He shook his head slowly as he stared into my eyes. “But this isn’t a passing emotion. I love you, Piper. I’m in love with you, and there’s nothing and no one that can—will—ever change that fact.”
We were silent, the air so thick it was like swimming through pudding. I couldn’t breathe, could barely even look at him for how intense this whole situation was.
Zane loved me.
He. Loved. Me.
* * *
Zane
I’d done it. Said it. I’d drawn the line and was waiting for Piper’s reaction.
As it was she stared at me, her eyes large, her shock clear.
“You love me?” she asked softly.
I swallowed the thick, suffocating lump in my throat. “I love you more than anything else in this world, Piper. I’ve never loved another human being the way I love you. Never even thought I could care about someone the way I do with you. When it concerns you I’m possessive, territorial, and the very thought of another man claiming you has pure rage blinding me.”
She was breathing harder, the look on her face having every part of me strung tight. I wanted to hear her say it back, wanted her to tell me I never had anything to worry about, that if she didn’t love me back things could stay the same.
I wanted to lie to her.
The truth was nothing would be the same if she didn’t want me.
But the looks. The way she bit her lip when I was near. All of that told me otherwise.
“Say something,” I whispered. “Anything.”
She took a deep breath and then smiled. That tightness I felt melted away. “I’ve wanted to hear you say those words for years, Zane. I’ve fantasized about it … worried about it.”
I reached out and ran my thumb along her bottom lip, unable to stop myself. She gasped slightly but didn’t push me away. “What were you worrying about?”
She looked away then, the interior in the car shifting so it was a little uncomfortable from her change in emotions. “How my father would react knowing that I am in love with his best friend.” She glanced at me then. “If you’d want me the same way I wanted you. If you’d think it was some silly crush I had, that I was too young to understand how I felt.”
I didn’t move, couldn’t after she’d said that to me, after the realization that I would get what I desperately wanted, that Piper would be mine.
Something snapped in me and I found myself reaching out for her, wanting to pull her onto my lap. And I did just that. Damn the fact the interior of the sports car was almost nonexistent. I needed to feel Piper pressed against me.
With some shifting from both of us, and my need for her having adrenaline rushing through my veins and causing me to be impatient, I had her on my lap. She was on her knees, her legs on either side of mine, her breasts pressed right to my chest. She looked down at me with wide eyes, her breathing ragged, her pupils dilated.
“Are we really doing this?”
I leaned in and kissed her, running my tongue along her lips, memorizing her sent, her flavor. “Yeah, baby, we really are.” I growled against her lips, unable to stop myself. “And I’m not letting anyone else have you. Ever.” She gasped for me. “In fact, I was ready to kick Brandon’s ass for even speaking to you. Or at the very least fire him.”
She laughed softly, the sound having every part of me feel lighter. “He was harmless.” She looked down at my lips. “I have only ever wanted you.”
I groaned and kissed her again. I needed to control myself or I’d end up taking her in my car, and that’s not what I wanted. Hell, I wanted to make this special for her, take her out, show her off. I wanted her on my arm, so everyone would see that she was mine, that I had the most beautiful woman at my side.
She pulled back but was still so close, our lips only inches apart.
“Take me to your house. Take me to your bed.”
My heart fucking stopped at her words.
“I want you, Zane. I love you. Be with me.”
I claimed her mouth again and cupped the back of her head, pulling her closer, needing her on top of me. Would I even make it to my place? Could I hold off on my needs, not come in my fucking slacks before I got her naked?
“Are you sure?” I asked against her mouth.
She pulled back and looked in my eyes, our breath mingling, the harshness of our panting audible. “I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.”
6
Zane
We found ourselves at my penthouse apartment, one I stayed at when I worked late in the city, and the first place I’d claim Piper.
Being with her might ruin my relationship with Liam.
Or maybe it wouldn’t.
Maybe my best friend would see how much I loved her, that Piper was the other half to me, that part that I’d been missing my whole fucking life. Maybe Liam would embrace our relationship and give his approval.
I couldn’t stand to think of losing him. He was like a brother to me, my family.
And that’s why this—being with his daughter—could fucking ruin everything.
“You’re thinking too hard,” she finally whispered, drawing me out
of my thoughts. Only Piper could have everything else fading away until it was us once more, until nothing else mattered but being here, with the woman I loved, the woman I’d give up everything for.
“I’m thinking about how this could really fuck things up.” I didn’t mince my words. I wanted her to know the truth. Now that she was aware of what was about to happen, how I felt, I never wanted to keep another thing from her again.
“I don’t want to think about any of that. Let reality leave, at least for this one moment.”
I groaned and rested my head against hers, my eyes closed, my breathing ragged.
“I’d do anything for you. All you have to do is ask and it’s yours.”
“Zane.” She whispered my name so sweetly, so innocently.
God, she was mine.
“You could ruin me and you wouldn’t even know it.” I cupped the back of her neck, pulling her face in close enough so our lips were a hairsbreadth away.
She lifted her hands and placed them on my chest. “Zane. Kiss me,” she whispered.
And when I saw her mouth open, her lips part ever so slightly, I kissed her hard and deep. I wasn’t going to stop until she was mine in every conceivable way, until both of us were so sated we couldn’t walk, let alone think clearly.
I didn’t know if I could have stopped even if I wanted to, but it seemed it didn’t matter because Piper started kissing me back. She speared her hands in my hair, tugged at the strands, and made these small noises in the back of her throat.
I swallowed the sound, needing more, wanting her to surrender every part of herself to me. She felt good in my arms, really fucking good. I knew I wouldn’t be able to let her go. Once I claimed her, fucked her and let her know she was mine, I was not going to let Piper walk away.
I wasn’t going to let anyone else have her.
She broke the kiss and looked at me. Her lips were swollen, red, and wet from my ministrations.
“Does it feel good, baby?”
She nodded, moaned out softly when I moved my thumb along her cheekbones. I didn’t stop myself from kissing her again.
“It feels so good.”
She panted against my mouth, and I knew she was giving herself to me finally.
I slipped my hand behind her head, gripped the base of her skull, and stared into her eyes.
She stared at me for a second, and I wondered if she’d find that hard edge of strength to stop this, to realize how crossing lines could ruin things. But I didn’t care about blurred lines. I cared about this woman more than anything else. I loved her more than life itself.
She broke free then, grabbing hold of my hair even harder, and slamming her mouth on mine.
“All mine,” I murmured, grabbed her hair, and tilted her head back. “I’m going to make you feel so fucking good.” I stared into her eyes. “I’m going to make you liquid.”
Her mouth was parted, her pupils dilated, and when she licked her lips, I let myself go fucking crazy. I kissed her again and again, hard, consuming ones that had her gasping against my mouth.
She kissed me harder, with more desperation.
Our tongues slid along each other, frantically, heated, and full of need. I was hard, so fucking hard that I found myself grinding my erection into her belly to ease the ache. I felt this carnal need for her, desperately desiring—aching—to feel myself buried balls deep in her pussy.
She pressed her breasts against my chest and murmured these incoherent things, her desire clearly driving her over the edge.
“Zane,” she moaned out.
I moved my hand lower until I got to the hem of her shirt, and slipped my fingers beneath the material. She arched her back for more. At the first contact of my bare flesh against hers, she gasped.
“Christ.”
My dick punched forward even harder when I took her nipple between my thumb and forefinger and pulled at the already turgid flesh. Over and over I played with her nipple, growing harder by the second with each moan she made.
Her clothes needed to fucking go, too. I moved my hands to the waistband of her pants, but stopped and started kissing her more possessively once again. I just couldn’t help myself where she was concerned. I wanted my handprints on her body, wanted my teeth marks on her flesh.
“I want to be inside of you.”
“Don’t stop.” She slanted her mouth on mine and speared her tongue between my parted lips. Back was the desperation, the kind that I felt down to my bones. I wanted more. I grabbed the collar of her shirt and in a swift move tore the fucking material in two. I had never needed anyone the way I did Piper. It was this fire in my veins, this desire in my marrow. I was dying to have every part of her, to be inside of her.
“God, Zane.”
I cupped her breasts, squeezed the mounds until she rocked back and forth against my erection, and knew I had to slow down, or I’d fucking come in my pants like a damn teenager.
“I need more.” Moving my hands lower, I pushed her pants down with frantic need and she kicked the material aside. Then I cupped her ass, feeling the plush mounds in my hands. I fucked her mouth with mine, my tongue moving between her lips, my cock hard as fucking steel.
I had her totally naked seconds later, my need too far gone to give a fuck about going slow.
“Christ. I’m so hard for you, Piper.” I moved my mouth to her ear and whispered, “I need to be inside of you now. I need to fuck you until you can only think of me when I’m not with you, baby.”
She shivered and looked me in the face. “Then do it. Fuck me.”
And that’s exactly what I did.
7
Piper
I couldn’t breathe, think, let alone stand on my own. Not when Zane was fierce, like an animal had been let free from him.
“I need you in my bed,” he ground out.
He had me in his arms, my legs now wrapped around his waist, my back now pressed to the wall. It was cold, my body instantly soaking in that frigidness, cooling my core temperature. But God, nothing could douse the fire raging inside of me.
He was hard. God, he was so hard for me. He moved his hand between our bodies and I gasped at the sensitivity.
“You know this is my first time?” I managed to whisper, needing him to know that I’d never done this before, that I was pure in pretty much every sexual sense.
He groaned and buried his face in the crook of my neck. His warm breath bathed my skin as he panted.
“A virgin,” he said, the vibrations from his voice spearing right into me. He pulled back and looked me in the eyes, his pupils dilated, the black eating up the irises. “My virgin.” He added pressure right between my thighs, his focus never wavering from mine. “My dick will be the only one that knows how this sweet little pussy feels, how tight and hot you are, how wet you get.”
I swallowed, licked my lips, and didn’t know how to respond. His words inflamed me to the point I felt like I’d combust.
“I’ll be the only one who will claim your cherry, take it as mine and show you how good this can be.”
He added even more pressure and I moaned, closing my eyes in the process.
“That’s it. Give it to me, Piper.”
“I need you,” I begged like some kind of fiend.
“Don’t worry, sweet girl. You’re about to have more than you can handle.” He was away from me a second later, but not before making sure I was steady enough to support myself. I was surprised I could even stand at this point.
He started getting undressed, his gaze on me, and his body so big, so muscular. Before I knew what was happening he was just as naked as I was.
And then he was nude, every hard, glorious inch of him on display. His broad shoulders, the light sprinkling of hair covering his pectoral muscles, all the way down to the rolling hills of his abdomen. And then there was a dark trail starting below his navel and going straight to a massive erection.
Maybe this was a bad idea, but it didn’t feel wrong.
He kissed me a
gain and again, harder and faster than before, and I knew that there was no stopping this. But I didn’t want to, and knew that if I didn’t have Zane inside of me, this building pressure would be too much for me to contain.
He was pressed against me once more, his hard, naked body feeling so masculine against mine. He groaned against my neck, had his hands on my bare ass, and his mouth back on mine to swallow the surprised sound that came from me. It was like something had snapped inside of him.
Goose bumps popped out along my flesh. He had me in his arms, my legs wrapped around his once more.
“I want you so fucking badly, baby,” he murmured against my mouth.
“Please.” I emphasized that one word.
Right now I just wanted to feel him pushing into me … stretching me. The sight of the erection he sported, the one that was pressed right between my legs, right against my slit, had me moaning. Zane wasn’t a small man by any means, and the thought of his huge cock inside of me had a fresh wave of wetness coming from my pussy. I wanted to feel him stretching my inner walls as he pushed that huge dick into me, wanted to feel so incredibly full I couldn’t stand it, couldn’t breathe, or wrap my head around it.
“God, Piper. Baby girl,” he groaned.
“I’m so ready for this, for you.”
He pulled his cock out, and I breathed out when he pressed it more forcefully to my cleft.
“Fuck, you’re so wet for me.”
I felt his dick throb between my legs, felt my slickness slip from my pussy and cover his shaft. We held each other’s gazes for several long seconds, and then we crashed our mouths together, clung to each other.
Hair was pulled, flesh was nipped at, and groans spilled from both of us.
“I want to tear you apart,” he said in a harsh growl, grinding his cock against me more and more, harder and faster.
“I want that.”
“I should be gentle this first time, though,” he groaned.
“I don’t want sweet. I want fucking crazy.”