by Shandi Boyes
Desire surges through me when he slips my hair to one side so he can kiss and suck my neck, but knowing he hasn’t slept for over thirty hours dampens my excitement.
He needs sleep.
My body screams at me in disgust when I pull away from him. I hate myself too, but this is the right thing to do. After spinning around on a wobbly pair of knees, I fold my arms in front of my chest and jerk my chin to his bed, giving Noah his marching orders.
His shocked expression nearly has my ruse coming undone. If his slanted head and wide eyes are anything to go by, this is the first time he’s felt the sting of rejection.
“You need sleep.”
He arches a brow into his luxurious hair. “Do you truly think I’ll sleep a wink without making you come first?”
Slickness coats my panties. Noah is always a gentleman...until he enters the bedroom. There, he isn’t just a gifted musician, he has many other talents as well. One happens to be sex.
“Come here.”
When he summons me with the crook of his finger, I try to maintain my ground, to uphold my integrity. It does me no good. The fire in his eyes is too much. I’m not strong enough for this.
I stroll toward him with my hips swinging and my lips parted. There's barely three feet of air between us, but I make it seem so much more. I seduce him without words before adding touch into the mix. He eyes me curiously when I raise his summoning hand to my mouth, pop his index finger between my lips, then suck down hard.
His growl has my knees clanging together. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”
He cups my thighs to guide my legs around his waist. I grind down on the hardness his jeans are failing to conceal as his tongue sweeps across my lips, demanding they open. When they do, he samples every inch of my mouth with slow, tantalizing licks. I return his kiss with just as much intensity, biting at his lips before suckling his tongue into my mouth.
After adjusting the tilt of my hips, I grind down again, desperate for more direct contact. Intuiting my needs, Noah places me on my feet before fiddling with the button on my jeans. I become lost in his dark gaze when he guides the stiff material down my thighs with his eyes never leaving mine.
When he has them far enough down my cotton panties are exposed, he places a teasing kiss on the damp material. I feel his lips rise against my pussy when my hips jerk. He loves how receptive my body is to him.
After wrangling off my jeans, he stands from his crouched position to remove my shirt. Air whistles between his teeth when he drinks in the tiny pair of panties and a mismatched lace bra I’m wearing. When my day started, I never expected it to end like this, so I didn’t prepare. I never thought I’d experience such raw emotions again.
Noah must be feeling the sentiment in the air as strongly as I do. His eyes scorch my skin as he stares at me as if it’s the first time he’s ever seen me. I love that. I love that even with our second anniversary approaching, nothing has changed. His hunger for me is just as voracious as it was years ago. As is mine. I’ll never get enough of him.
My eyes go crazy when he removes his jeans and shirt. I take in his stacked abs, smooth pecs, and the thin trail of hair flowing down the bulge protruding from his satin boxer shorts. While fanning my flushed cheeks, I return my eyes to Noah.
"Beautiful. So fucking beautiful," he murmurs, expressing my feelings to a T.
The heat raging through my body doubles when he unclasps my bra and dumps it onto our rumpled clothing on the floor. It turns catastrophic when he hooks his thumbs into my panties to glide them down my quaking thighs. They join the rest of our clothing, but not until he’s given them a quick squeeze to assess their dampness. I should be ashamed of how wet I am, but I’m not. Noah has taught me there’s nothing wrong with being adventurous if you’re with the right person.
My hair fans out on the pillow when Noah lays me down on his bed so his lips can travel the path his eyes just took. He showers my skin with feather-like kisses and gentle bites, like I’m his most treasured possession. I watch him in bewilderment, excited to be at his complete mercy.
By the time he reaches the area aching for his attention, I’m on the edge of hysteria, seconds from toppling into the abyss. Thankfully, his hunger is as potent as mine. He doesn’t tease me or make me beg, he just spears his tongue through the folds of my drenched pussy before worshipping it as only he can.
He gives it his all, holding nothing back until I crumble into a mind-hazing climax. His name tears from my throat, and my body shakes as euphoria pumps through my veins hard and fast. It takes several long, pussy-clenching minutes for me to return from hysteria, and even then, I’m still woozy.
After a final lash to my clit, Noah climbs up my body so he can pay the same attention to my breasts. The calluses on his fingertips from playing guitar for years add to the teasing tweaks he does to my nipples. He plays my body like it’s an instrument, not stopping until I'm singing in ecstasy for the second time tonight.
My head is just returning from the clouds when a condom wrapper being torn open resonates through my ears. Like I could get any more horny, a second wave hits me from watching Noah roll a condom down his densely veined cock. There's nothing sexier than seeing him as he is now. Relaxed, mouthwateringly hot, and hard enough to make me panic that no amount of wetness will prepare my body for his invasion.
My nerves are set aside for euphoria when he nestles his big cock at the entrance of my core. He sheaths me slowly, notching in each inch during a slow, painless thrust. Once I’m fully hilted, a vibrating moan ripples through my lips. I love how full I feel. It’s painful, yet delicious at the same time.
After adjusting my thighs, Noah withdraws to the very tip before sinking back into me. He does the same thing over and over again until the rim around his cock has the nub inside me tingling beyond doubt. He brings me so close to the brink before dropping his eyes to mine to whisper the words he knows will push me over the edge for the third time.
“I love you, Beautiful.”
Chapter 37
Emily
Noah didn’t lack an ounce of stamina our first two hours home, but once he ensured I was thoroughly satisfied, he collapsed from exhaustion. Although I'm tired from our bedroom antics, I can’t sleep. I got twelve hours straight last night. If you add that to the excitement still thrumming through my veins, you’ve got a person who is very alert and very much awake.
Since Noah needs sleep, I do what every teen does when they’ve got hours to kill: I scroll my Facebook wall. That’s where I stumble upon an article my friend Crystal shared. It’s about Rise Up’s performance on MTV last night.
Curious, I click on the link. It takes me to a well-known and respected gossip site. The headline screams, “Noah Taylor’s Acoustic Performance Sets Tongues Wagging.”
I scroll down to read the article underneath.
Noah Taylor, lead singer of Rise Up, has set tongues wagging after announcing he is in love during his heartfelt performance on MTV last night. We've been informed by an anonymous source that Noah has been in a relationship the past few months, but he has kept it on the down-low out of respect for his new love. Sources believe Noah is dating small screen actress Hope Bennett, who recently broke her engagement to movie producer Tom Dempsey. Although Hope's publicist has yet to issue a comment, we wish both her and Noah the best with their budding relationship.
Jealousy has me punishing the screen on my phone a little more than intended. It isn’t that I don’t trust Noah, I’ve just never heard of Hope Bennett before, so I’m googling her to ease my curiosity.
Yeah, right.
Wikipedia informs me that Hope Bennett is a twenty-two-year-old starlet of a daytime soap opera on CBS. She was recently announced as the lead actress in a romantic comedy being filmed in the summer. She's beautiful, but I don’t see how anyone could connect her with Noah. There are no photos of them together, and she's based in New York, whereas Noah’s band obligations keep him on the West Coast.
&nbs
p; After scrolling back to the original article, I click on the video link of Noah’s performance. Any jealousy still wreaking havoc with my stomach clears away when the video zooms in on Noah. He’s sitting on a metal chair, and the guitar I bought him for his birthday is on his lap. He’s staring down the camera with remorseful eyes.
Tears burn my eyes when the hostess announces his performance, “Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we have something a little different for you. I’m sure you’ve heard the sensational hit songs ‘Surrender Me’ and ‘Hollow’ by Rise Up that have been climbing the charts the past few months. Well, tonight, I introduce Noah Taylor, lead singer of Rise Up, performing their hit song ‘Surrender Me’ acoustically.”
With his eyes shut and his foot tapping, Noah pours his heart and soul into the song he wrote after we made love. It’s the most endearing and riveting performance I’ve ever seen. Not just from Noah, but from music icons across the globe. It’s so beautiful, I can’t stop the tears from springing into my eyes. This song has always meant the world to me, but I’m seeing it in an entirely new light now. It’s not a pop song. It’s a love ballad.
At the end of the performance, Noah opens his eyes and peers straight down into the camera. “I love you, Beautiful.”
Not only does his performance prove I’ve always been his number one priority, it unlocks the answer I’ve been seeking the past few hours. I now know what I must do. I’m scared, but Noah has always been worth the risk.
Chapter 38
Noah
The light taps of a keyboard draw me from my slumbering state. I’m not sure how long I’ve been asleep. The drool on my pillow hints at a couple of hours, but the thump of my temples says otherwise. As I take a lazy stretch, I drink Emily in. She’s sitting at my desk, tapping frantically on the laptop she splurged on last year. It’s secondhand, but she loves it as much as she does her hideous car.
I watch her with interest when she stops what she’s doing to jot down something in a notebook at her side before she starts tapping again. She has the sexy naughty librarian look going on. Her hair is contained in a messy bun, and a pencil is stabbed through the middle of it. Although she’s not wearing glasses like all the teacher/student fantasies I’ve had, her sexy-as-fuck lips are gnawing on another pencil.
There is only one way this visual could get more appealing: by acting on my fantasies.
“Hey, Beautiful.”
My voice is hoarse from waking up, but it’s enough to gain Emily’s attention. Smiling, she walks over to slip into my bed. “Hi, baby.”
My cock twitches when her teeth graze my earlobe before she sucks it into her mouth. I’ve spent more time devouring her today than I have sleeping, yet she still hasn’t had her fill. I love how insatiable she is.
After pressing a handful of pecks to the stubble on my chin, she slips back out of my bed, leaving me hanging. Upon spotting my dropped lip, she smiles. “You’ve only been asleep for two hours. You need a lot more than that.”
I hit her with the same look I gave her earlier. Since she came more times than I can count, she doesn’t fall for it this time around.
Fuck it!
She kisses my forehead. “While you catch up on missed sleep, I’m going to visit Jenni and Jasper at the hospital.” The sparkle in her eyes exposes how smitten she is with Jasper. I can’t blame her. He's pretty cute—even if he looks like his father. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
Refusing to let her leave without a proper sendoff, I tug on her wrist until she lands on top of me, then snuff her squeals with my tongue.
By the time I pull back, baby cuddles are the last thing on her mind. “You’re a tease, Noah Taylor.”
It’s the fight of my life not to bring out my best tricks when she stands, wobbling, from my bed. I’m as smug as fuck about how woozy I can still make her.
The egotistical grin stretched across my face is wiped off when she whips back around to face me. “Before I forget, I’ll leave my phone on your bedside table. I switched it off because the Ice Queen has been calling it nonstop the past hour.”
Delilah is most likely having a coronary that I’ve been off the grid for so long, but she’ll have to wait a few more hours. I’m too fucking tired to deal with her shit right now. I can barely keep my eyes open, let alone face World War III.
After gathering her purse and my truck key from my desk, Emily returns to my side to kiss me goodbye.
“I love you, Beautiful.” Since I'm covering a yawn, it sounds more like, “I bub you, bubaful.”
She giggles. “I love you too. Now go to sleep! I’ll grab dinner on my way home.”
I’m back asleep before she breaks through the door of my room.
With a mouth as dry as the Sahara Desert, I swing my legs over my bed and grab my phone off the bedside table to check the time. My brows stitch, confused as to why I'm clutching Emily’s phone. It takes several hazy minutes to recall that I smashed my phone the night before.
When I switch on Emily’s cell, I see that it’s 8:23 PM. As much as I want to sleep until noon tomorrow, if I go back to bed now, I'll be wide awake at 1 AM—guaranteed!
As I throw on a pair of boxer shorts, Emily's phone buzzes like it’s possessed. She has thirteen voicemail messages and twenty-three unanswered texts. Although they could be from anyone, even my sleep-deprived head is screaming at me not to be an idiot. Delilah doesn’t know the words “back down.”
I could return her calls, but she’s waited this long, so another thirty minutes won’t hurt, right? Even on my best days, I need a coffee IV before I get to work on battling the dragon who despises everything I do.
As I walk through the living room, I rub a kink out of my neck. My muscles are aching, but none of their wails are from a lack of sleep. Emily often says that jealousy sex is the best sex there is, but I’m no longer quick to agree. Being scared shitless of losing someone will have you bringing out your best moves. You’ll fuck like a monster with the hope they’ll panic, worried they’ll never be satisfied in such a way again, so they’ll put up with your shit.
My eyes float up from the ground when Jacob’s voice drills through my ears. “Hey, Noah.” He’s sitting at the dining nook at the side of the kitchen, fiddling with his laptop.
“Hey.” I scrub my hand over my eyes, urging myself to wake up while spanning the distance between us. “How’re things?”
“Good.” He smiles a slick grin while jerking his chin up. “Saw Emily leaving earlier. I’m glad you guys worked things out. She was a fucking wreck.”
I hate that he was in the middle of our fight, but I’m also grateful. I don’t want to think about the circumstances if I hadn’t sent him to pick her up Friday afternoon. I’d most likely be waking up hungover and depressed instead of sexually exhausted.
My brow cocks when Jacob scratches his brow. He only ever does that when he’s nervous. “What?”
“Who’s Hope Bennett?”
Yep, he spits it out just like that. No pause. No delay. A straight jump out of the gate without hesitation.
I shrug. “No fucking clue.”
“Alright, but I wouldn’t recommend reading the latest gossip sites then.”
Unease curdles in my guts when he spins his laptop around to face me. It’s open on an article declaring that I’m in love, which is true. An anonymous source quotes that I’ve been in love for months, which is also true, but it’s been more than a few months. And my rumored love is Hope Bennett, a silver screen actress who recently broke off her engagement to a hotshot movie producer.
“What the fuck? How do they even come up with this shit?” When Jacob shrugs, my eyes stray to his. “You believe me, don’t you?”
I shouldn’t care what he thinks, but for some fucking reason, I do.
Mercifully, he doesn’t leave me hanging for long. “Yeah, I do. You might be as annoying as fuck, but you know to keep your cock in your pants...or Emily’s...whichever suits more.”
“I just hope Emily doesn�
�t read this before I tell her about my performance—”
“Em showed me this article on her way out.” He doesn’t seem the slightest bit concerned by what he has just said. I’m the only one shitting bricks.
“And...?” I encourage, wanting him to elaborate on his response.
He twists his lips. “She didn’t seem worried.”
I take a step back, shocked. That’s not the reply I expected. Emily trusts me—I’ve never done anything to break her trust—but I still thought she’d be upset reading gossip about me schmoozing another girl. Rumors are just that, rumors, but they plant seeds of doubt not even the most self-assured person can ignore.
I learned that the hard way three months ago.
I cough up half a lung when Jacob throws his fist into my stomach. “And will you please call Delilah Winterbottom? She’s been calling the house nonstop the past four hours. She's driving me fucking nuts!”
Growling, I pivot on my heels and head back to my room. I may as well get the inevitable over with. Upon entering, I discover Emily’s cell vibrating on my desk. Surprise, surprise, it’s another call from Delilah.
After hitting the connect button, I press Emily’s phone to my ear. “Hell—”
“It’s about time! I’ve been trying to reach you all day!”
I pull the phone away from my ear to wiggle out her shriek before reattaching it. I swear to god, this lady is worse than a dragon on heat. She’s always riled up. “Sorry, I’ve been a little busy on my days off. You do know what days off are, don’t you, Delilah?”
“I’m well aware of what they are. They’re things people have when they're not striving to get their debut album to the number one spot in the country!”