Tangled Up In You (Rogue #1)

Chapter 22

22

GAVIN

S he was everything he remembered: exceedingly receptive to his touch, and with a body so sexy, so beautiful, he couldn’t imagine ever being sated. He was so hard for her it hurt. Kissing and fondling wasn’t enough. He needed to be inside of her. Backing her up against the small antique dresser set against the wall, he watched through lust-hooded eyes as she lifted herself up onto it and pulled him between her legs. Yes, this would do.

The small piece of furniture held her weight well while he quickly retrieved a condom from his pocket and let his jeans fall past his knees. She leaned back slightly onto her hands, waiting for him to roll it on. He only got as far as pushing down his boxer briefs before he lost his concentration on the task, however. The look on her face threw him off balance.

It was a look of pure sex.

Her cheeks were flushed, her mouth slightly open, her eyes bright with desire. Her small nipples were rigid and he moaned when she toyed with one for his benefit. But it also compelled him to get the condom in place.

As he leaned in to kiss her, he pulled aside her panties and trailed his fingers along her wetness, making her suck in a breath. That turned into a whimper when he slid a finger deep inside her. She was warm and slick and he wanted to drop to his knees to lick every bit of her, but that would have to wait. Right now, he required the pure pleasure of fucking her.

But, first, a little teasing was in order. He played the tip of his dick against her clit until she couldn’t take it and pulled him inside her. The intense sensation of her taking him in made him break away from their kiss so he could catch his breath.

“Jesus, darlin’,” he moaned into her neck.

The only sound in the room, besides their increasingly short breaths and their skin-on-skin contact, was the weathered attached mirror and metal drawer pulls of the dresser rattling to their rhythm.

Pulling away to look at her, he found she still had that heated expression. But it was more than sexual desire, he realized. It also conveyed the trust and intimacy of their connection. A connection he had feared was lost. And it almost sent him over the edge when she met his eyes. With his fingers to her jaw, he directed her to see in the mirror what he did.

“Look at how beautiful you are,” he told her.

After a moment of watching herself, she turned back to him and squeezed her legs tighter around his waist, bringing him even deeper inside her.

“Hold on to me,” he said and she wrapped her arms around his neck.

Grabbing her backside, he lifted her and made his way toward the bed. Once he had her on the bed, he kicked off his shoes and managed to free himself of his clothes.

Now he could concentrate on grinding his hips against hers, pushing deep enough to make her gasp. Raising himself up on his hands, he worked a rhythm that he could see was bringing her close. He watched her half-closed eyes as she lost focus, saw the way her hips bucked up against his in just the right way to please herself.

“Darlin’, touch yourself for me. Like you do. The way that drives me crazy.”

She met his eyes then, playing with her nipples once more. Seeing that little extra touch got him moving faster, chasing his orgasm.

But she cried out first, trembling beneath him as she rode a wave of ecstasy and he kept pumping until he was sure she’d gotten everything she could out of it. When he saw her small, pleased smile, he allowed himself to let go.

It was the longest, most intense orgasm he could remember.

He collapsed onto her and she squeezed him with both her arms and legs, pulling him to her so that they felt like one being.

Kissing her neck, earlobe, cheek, and lips, he murmured, “I don’t want to let you go.” There was no use in pretending how he felt or holding back.

She whispered back, “Then don’t.”

He stayed there, her taking the weight of him on top of her, before he had to separate himself to toss the condom. Once he pulled her back him, she sighed deeply and settled into his arms, her head on his chest. He stroked her hair over and over.

“Sophie, darlin’,” he said quietly. “I’m so sorry for how I acted last time. I … I don’t know. It’s just, I somehow knew you were in the audience that night. I didn’t want to admit it to myself, really, in case I jinxed it somehow. But when I was on that stage, I was performing as if only to you.”

“I think I knew that, too,” she said.

“And I knew the moment you came to the after party. The air changed by your very presence. I was thrilled.”

“But?”

“But then you went for Conor straight away and it made me burn with jealousy. The way you smiled at him. The way you looked at him. The way you touched his fucking bare chest. Even the way you held his hand until the last second when you started toward me. All of that was what I’d thought was only for me.”

She shifted to look at him. “But, baby, he’s not?—”

“I know. I know he’s not who you came to see, that you’d never be after him and he’d never be after you. But that jealousy was there. And then it led to me thinking about how you left, about how I told myself it was so easy for you. That it must have meant we didn’t mean all that much in the end.”

“That’s not true. I would have stayed with you if I could have.”

“I got invested in my version, is what I’m saying. Because it helped me get by. It helped me not be destroyed by missing you. So, when you showed up, I had all these tangled up feelings that I couldn’t control. I didn’t want to go through it again. I didn’t want to feel that pain of you leaving like before. It came out in the worst possible way of trying to act like I didn’t care. But, darlin’, I was nothing but a fool, lost in my confusion and pain. And I’m so sorry for taking it out on you. I’m so sorry.”

She turned so that she was facing him, her body halfway on his, looking into his eyes for a long moment. He hoped she could see that he meant this apology with every part of his being.

In silent answer, she kissed his cheeks, then his forehead, then his lips. First, the kiss was soft, chaste. But it soon intensified and she straddled his hips, ready for a true makeup session.