She absorbed his weight greedily and feasted on his lips. He tasted of tangy margaritas and her, so slick and delicious. He tugged her upward long enough to relieve her of her soggy bra, which hit the wall with a wet slap. She fumbled with the button on his pants, but her hands were shaking violently against his taut stomach muscles and her fingers felt thick, much like the rest of her body. Evan’s hands joined hers, steady and sure and urgent, tugging and pushing until a moment later his rigid length sprang into her hand.
Kelsey stroked the steely silken smoothness of him, and he uttered a gruff sound that evoked a purely feminine response from her own lips. He was big. She’d known that from touching him before. Her eyes had adjusted and the little light there was showed her he was beautiful, as she’d also known he would be. She looked down to watch her hand smooth over his cock, her thumb rubbing the slit in the head, collecting the pearl of liquid that had formed there. He let her play, his breathing labored, until she felt his fingers thrust inside her. She arched back on the bed, releasing him to clutch his biceps as he dragged his fingers from her and spread her wetness over her clit.
“Are you ready for me, baby?”
The endearment curled warmly through her senses, intimate and unfamiliar coming from him. But they were three thousand miles away from familiar. “Yes.” Her hands skated feverishly over his shoulders as she imagined him riding her to an ecstasy she’d never before attained. If anyone could give that to her, it was him. “But are you ready for me?”
He chuckled as his fingers slid in and out again, thickly glazed with her need. “You like throwing down challenges, don’t you?”
Oh, damn him. She moaned and tossed her head on the mattress, raising one leg to brush against his side, to give him better access. “I just want you. Don’t make me wait anymore. Please, Evan, now…”
He released her only to seize her wrists in both his hands and slam them back on the bed, shifting above her to position himself and attacking her lips with his own. She sprawled wider for him, feeling ten pounds heavier in her lower belly, liquid with her want. The thick head of his c*ck teased her opening, and she squirmed, trying to force it deeper, trying to impale herself.
“Easy, sweetheart,” he whispered.
“I don’t want it easy. Inside me, I need you inside—”
He listened. He plunged directly into that molten center, and a shockwave pulsed through her body though she’d accepted only half his length.
“Evan!”
He groaned in her ear, retreating and reclaiming, going deeper until he lodged against her cervix. She struggled to accommodate him, wrapping her legs around his hips, needing all of him, the simultaneous pleasure and pain slaying her. It had been too long. Tears streamed from her eyes.
“God, Kelsey, you’re killing me here.”
“Don’t stop, don’t stop…ohhh…”
“No, sugar. I couldn’t if I wanted to.” So wet and slick and tight inside her. His long, slow slides in and out of her body set off sparks, like Fourth of July fireworks grazing her flesh.
She was nearly hyperventilating. “Faster.”
“Oh, yes,” he groaned, his voice shaking. His fingers twined through hers, still pinning her hands in place, and he set a merciless rhythm that drove her into the stratosphere. Her p**sy adjusted to the overwhelming stretch and accepted him greedily. The silence of the bedroom was broken by the wet sounds of their joining and their rapid breathing, and she found herself drawing as much excitement from his pleasure as her own.
“I want to touch you—” she sobbed.
“Only after I make you come so hard you scream my name. And you will.” That purred oath alone nearly drove her over. It was the same voice that had made her spew coffee at her office two weeks ago, so deep and seductive, like dusky velvet. “You scream it as loud as you want this time.”
Her tears were still flowing in earnest. He smeared the trail with his lips, his breath warm and panting against her cheek. She had asked for this, and he was giving it to her, but terror churned through her middle. The sparks were igniting. She didn’t know what would be left of her heart once the explosion was over.
Every inch of her was alive in a way she couldn’t recall ever having experienced. She’d never been so enflamed, so wet. She loved how he felt inside her, thick and overpowering…… The swaying of her br**sts as he pushed into her again and again was almost like a physical caress to their aching weight. She arched upward so her n**ples would graze his dark smattering of chest hair. But when he raised his head to look at her, she had to turn away—his regard for her was too intense, too powerful.
“Kelsey.” He whispered her name so sweetly she whimpered. “You’re perfect. Don’t close up on me now, sweetheart, let me see you.”
She turned her head back to find him staring down into her eyes. The expression she saw there made her heart trip over itself. He looked at her as if he were trying to get inside her soul as surely as he was inside her body. She knew her own gaze was simply desperate, pleading.
Like building thunderheads in the distance, she could feel it gathering, the towering pressure tightening deep inside her womb until she could hardly stand it… please please please…
“Evan…oh God…”
“Just let it go,” he murmured, watching the fragmented emotions she knew were crossing her face. “It’s going to be so good……”
Oh, it was. His lips grazed hers as all hell broke loose in her body and she surrendered to it—that’s all she could do. One small part of her pulled her entire body taut as ecstasy burst outward from the heavy thrust and drag where he claimed her. She clenched down on him, crying out his name. True to his promise.
“There you go, baby. Christ…”
He buried himself more fully inside her and sharpened his movements, driving her through it, and the sobs lodged in her throat broke out in staccato bursts when she couldn’t draw enough breath to scream. Her hands gripped his hard enough to snap bones. She tossed her head back and forth, the only part of her she still maintained control of. She was his, every inch, held open and immobile, captive to her passion for him. Like wind gusts during a hot summer storm, it swept her away.
“Fuck, honey, do I need to pull out? You feel too good…”
“No, no, don’t leave me, it’s okay.” She locked her legs tighter around him and held on as her final contractions milked him of all restraint. His h*ps slammed forward and he surged inside her, pulsing with his release. He said her name, growled it, as she drank in the sight of him, the sensation of him spilling himself inside her. So thick and warm. His hair fell forward around his face and the veins stood out in his neck. God, he was exquisite.
One final thrust and he eased himself down over her, his chest heaving. His hand smoothed up her arm and he palmed her breast, turning his face into her neck. With her hands finally free, she wrapped her arms around him and held on as if he were a life preserver. He felt different from her ex, leaner, all sinewy strength and coiled power. He took better care of himself. Did everything better.
She was shaking like a palm frond in a hurricane, unable to stop the helpless little sounds that kept slipping through her lips. With complete concentration she managed one deep, cleansing breath to coax down her ragged pulse. The scent of their sex bloomed throughout the room, filling her nostrils. Now that the heat they’d generated had rushed out of her, she could feel the blush roaring high and hot in her cheeks.
No, no, don’t leave me…
She cringed, digging her fingertips into his flesh as an anchor against the surge of embarrassment that heated her blood, so different from the intoxicating fires of moments ago. Jesus, what had she done? “Oh, God…” she whispered, covering her face with one hand.
“It’s okay, Kelsey.”
“No, it…” She couldn’t speak. He pulled himself from her, then snuggled close and brought her into his embrace.
“Sweetie. Look at me.”
She did, but it was difficult now, when she could never remember a time she hadn’t wanted to look at his beloved face. She blinked, trying to force the fresh torrent of tears back where they belonged. It just wasn’t possible.
No, there was no emptiness now. She was bursting at the seams, overflowing.
“Don’t cry,” he said gently, swiping her cheeks with his thumbs. “You cry and I want to break something. Or someone. What is it?”
“I can’t. I’m sorry. Not…right now.”
All this time…all these years. All her restless longing had converged on her at once.
“Okay, okay.” His eyes were troubled as he stroked her hair. “Just answer me this. Do you regret it?”
She hated that she was making him look like that, but there was nothing she could do except reply to that question truthfully, and without hesitation. “No. Don’t ever think that. And I’m okay, really.” She drew a deep breath and felt the panic start to pass. They were both adults, they would be all right. It was rather late for the protection discussion, but she felt the need to ease his mind. “I’m on the Pill, so you don’t have to worry.”
He chuckled, his warm breath tickling her cheek. “I’m really not worried, honey.”
Okay. She stroked her fingertips up and down his spine as long minutes passed and she puzzled over that. The image that flashed through her mind then was unavoidable: a dark-haired toddler smiling up at her with Evan’s green eyes. What unsettled her most was that it only made her want to maul him again.
You only had sex with the guy. Stop thinking about white picket fences, dammit. It was almost as if she could hear Lisa’s voice in her mind, chiding her.
So she did what it commanded. Amazing, to just let go and drift on this euphoria. To finally hold him in the carnal embrace she’d fantasized about for so long.
Chapter Six
Evan watched Kelsey struggle bravely with her tears. He only wished he knew what to say to help her win the battle with them, but what was there to say when your best friend was weeping with guilt over finally having mind-blowing sex with you?
Goddammit. There was so much he wanted to tell her, but to do so now might shatter her fragile calm. Still, he marveled at her dramatic shift from wounded kitten to hellcat and back again, and wanted to break Todd Jacobs’s freaking neck for hurting her. She should have let him do it seven months ago when he’d tried.
Because that’s what this was about, wasn’t it? Her anger, her hurt, her betrayal. All taken out on him.
It was all right. Hell. He could take it, and consider himself a lucky guy for it.
“Mmm, I don’t want to let you go,” he murmured in her ear finally. “So sweet and warm.”
She sighed, running the sole of one foot up and down his calf. His body stirred at the gesture, thinking of those perfect feet, pretty and dainty with little seashell toenails. Everything about her body was pretty and dainty.
“We can sleep like this,” she suggested, smiling dreamily at him. They were still wrapped tight in each other’s arms. She was heavenly soft against him.