Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
FORREST
S he’d called, but when the knock fell on my door, I half believed I was hearing things. I opened the door, and there she was, standing on my doorstep, her blue eyes cautious but resolved. Cautious but resolved wasn’t what I wanted from Sterling, but I’d take it for now. Her fingers clenched the long strap of her purse, and she looked up at me, lips parted as if she’d started to say something and lost her nerve.
That was okay. We didn’t need to talk. We could get to that later.
I reached for her, taking her by the upper arms and pulling her through the doorway. Leaning to shut it behind her, I turned the lock. Sterling didn’t step back or evade my grip. Instead, a second after the click of the lock, she leaned into me, her face raised to mine, her lids sliding closed and shielding her eyes. She didn’t need to see. She just needed to feel.
We didn’t get farther than my doorway before I kissed her. Sterling was here in my house of her own free will, and I couldn’t wait a moment longer. Her arms rose to circle my neck, and the urgency of her mouth on mine told me that despite whatever else was between us, at this moment, she wanted me.
I wasn’t sure there was anything I wanted in life more than I wanted Sterling Sawyer.
I kissed her until we were both dizzy, holding her tight against me, her breasts pressed to my chest, and my hands splayed across her back, feeling every hitch of her breath, every beat of her racing heart.
My fingers found her zipper, and my head cleared enough for me to notice that we were still standing right in front of the closed front door. Not exactly the place for what I had in mind. Tightening my arm around Sterling’s waist, I scooped her up and carried her through the house, up the stairs to my bedroom. Her lips were swollen, her cheeks flushed. She raised her free hand and went after the buttons on my shirt, her fingers nimble and quick. She had every one she could reach undone by the time I set her on her feet in front of my bed.
Her purse fell to the carpet with a thump as I finally pulled the tab of her zipper. Her dress unpeeled and fell to the floor. My mouth went dry at the sight of a strapless white lace bra against tanned skin, the peak of her dark pink nipples straining against the white lace. She was all curves and smooth skin.
Before I could touch her, her hands were at my belt. Getting naked was taking too long. I wasn’t sure I wanted to take off her underwear—I loved the lace—but my pants had to go. Her warm fingers dove beneath the fabric at my waist, shucking my pants down my legs. The scratchy lace of her bra against my chest sent shivers over my skin.
I stopped and breathed in the smell of her hair. Everything that was Sterling enticed me. Stepping out of my pants, I scooped her up again and tossed her on the bed. She let out a laughing gasp, rolling forward to reach for me. I grabbed her wrists, transferring them into my right hand.
“Lie down,” I said. She squirmed but followed my order, her teeth sinking into her swollen lower lip. I guided her hands up above her head, pressing them down against the mattress until her fingers curved to grasp the base of the headboard. “Don’t let go.”
“Or what?” Sterling asked, her eyes hot, bright and eager.
“Or I’ll stop.”
“Stop wh—” She cut off with a gasp as my mouth closed over her nipple, sucking through the lace. “Oh,” she moaned, “okay.”
She kept her hands where they were, gripping the headboard as I moved from one nipple to the other, sucking and nipping. Finally, growing tired of the bra and all that scratchy lace between me and Sterling’s soft skin, I unsnapped it. The sight of her unbound breasts made my head spin.
I didn’t know if she had the most beautiful breasts on the planet because they were hers or if they were really just that spectacular. It didn’t matter. The truth was, no one would ever equal this woman. No one ever could. She wasn’t perfect, but everything about her was perfect to me.
I couldn’t tell her that. Sterling was tired of hearing words from me. At this point, words just felt like excuses. I could only show her what I felt. Sex wasn’t the best way to prove to her I was worth a second chance, but it didn’t hurt. Not if we did it right.
She squirmed against me, arching her back to press those gorgeous breasts up into my hands. To my mouth. I obliged without argument. In bed, we’d always wanted the same thing. I lingered, touching, tasting until her moans sounded like pleas. And then I slid down the bed, hooking my fingers in her white lace thong, tugging it down her legs and pressing them wide, raising her knees and baring her body to me.
I dropped my head and licked.
She gasped my name. “Forrest, oh fuck, Forrest.”
I pressed a finger inside her, then two, loving the way her hips rocked up, taking me deeper and rubbing her clit into my tongue over and over again, chasing the orgasm just out of reach. I closed my lips around her clit and sucked hard, my fingers stroking in and out until she came apart, sobbing out my name.
I shifted to the side, giving her space to recover from her orgasm while I grabbed a condom from my bedside drawer, thanking my earlier self for having the optimism to stash some just in case hell froze over and Sterling was ever in this bed. But I didn’t know what was going on in hell. I was in heaven.
Condom taken care of, I moved back between her legs, stroking a hand up the inside of her knee to trace a light stroke between her legs. She twitched, her fingers still curled around the headboard.
“Too sensitive?” I asked.
Her eyes foggy, she nodded.
I rose over her, nuzzling her elbow before kissing the inside of her wrist, taking in the tight grip of her hands on the headboard. “You’re always such a good girl,” I said, turning my head to capture her mouth.
Sterling growled low in her throat, kissing me back with the ferocity I’d missed so much. She loved it when I was bossy. No one told Sterling what to do. Except me. And though I knew a part of her hated my orders, they set her on fire every time. At least they had before, when she’d trusted me.
I had just enough brainpower left to wonder if her hands on that headboard meant she trusted me again, if only a little, before the head of my cock nudged her slick heat, and I stopped thinking about anything other than making her come.
“You think you can do that again?” I whispered, my lips at her ear. She nodded. “You can let go of the headboard now.”
Her arms flew up as if on springs, coming down to wrap tightly around my back as I shifted my hips and filled her, inch by inch. Nothing would ever feel as good as Sterling. There was no pleasure, no prize on earth worth risking losing her.
I didn’t last long. Neither did she. We moved in perfect unison until her nails dug into my shoulders, her head tipped back, and her body clenched tight around me. The pulse of her orgasm drew me with her, falling blindly into ecstasy.
When I thought I could move, I rolled to the side, bringing her with me. She shifted, pushing me to my back, splaying on top of me, her skin damp and her breath coming in gasps. I drifted for a few minutes as my heart slowed, and Sterling’s breath evened out. Finally, she raised her head and moved to the side, hitching one leg over mine.
“That was nice,” she said into my collarbone.
The laugh shook my chest. “Nice? That’s all you can say? It was nice?”
“Mhm. Pretty great.” She nodded sleepily.
“That was a hell of a lot better than nice,” I said into her hair, stroking my fingers down her temple behind her ear to skim her neck, loving the way she melted into me. I got up to take care of the condom, sliding back into bed beside her and pulling her into my arms.
Then we dozed off, falling from nap into sleep, waking the next morning to the insistent buzz of the alarm on my phone.
Sterling jumped out of bed before I had my eyes open all the way, mumbling something I couldn’t understand as she snatched her dress off the floor and leapt for the bathroom. I rolled to my feet, snagging my own clothes, and headed for the guest bath. If I waited to use my own, Sterling would sneak out the second I was behind the door. Instead, she emerged ten minutes later to find me in the kitchen, making breakfast.
The rich, bitter scent of coffee filling the kitchen told me I was about to find out how badly Sterling wanted to escape my company now that the orgasms had faded. Sterling wasn’t sure about me, but she loved her coffee in the morning. She stopped at the door of the kitchen, her purse clutched in her hands, eyes wary, the satisfied, relaxed woman who’d slept in my arms long gone.