Chapter 24
Rosalee
My heart pounded in my chest as I leaned against my bedroom door after my run-in with Xavier.
He wanted me. Good lord, he had a lot of walls up, a ton of issues, but he wanted me.
Genuinely wanted me, plain ol' Rosalee with a little too much cushion around the middle, eyes a little too wide, and too often a doormat.
But the wanting wasn't the problem. He wanted me, yes, but only because I was here and I was easy. I couldn't resist him, and he knew it.
Which meant I had to be strong.
A heavy pounding sounded right behind my head, startling a gasp out of me. "Rosalee, open the door." Xavier's voice was deep and strung with tension and a hint of desperation. "Rosalee."
My eyes slid shut and I inhaled deeply, letting it out slowly until I could take a full deep breath without trembling. And then I pushed off the door and pulled it open. "What is it?" My voice was barely above a whisper, so filled with emotion I was powerless to hide it.
"I want you." Those three words weren't the three words, but in that moment they were just as powerful, especially when they left his beautiful mouth on a ragged growl.
"I want you, Rosalee. I'm struggling with this information, but the one thing I am dead fucking certain about is that I want you and not just in my bed.
I want to hear you laugh." He took a few steps closer. "And know it's because of me."
I felt the smile spreading across my face before I could stop it. "You're grumpy, not funny," I reminded him.
His lips twitched. "Knock, knock." His deadpan delivery yanked a laugh from the depths of my stomach. "Yeah, that's the sound."
"We can be friends," I told him honestly. "I'm still here."
He shook his head. "We are friends, but we're more than friends."
"Friends who sometimes kiss and have sex?"
His nostrils flared and desire darkened his eyes. "Rosalee. These feelings are a shock, but they aren't unwanted. I'm a grumpy bastard, I know that, and I'll probably mess up a time or two along the way. And when I do, feel free to slap me upside the head and tell me I'm being an ass."
"Or," I added with a heavy sigh, "you could simply talk to me. Share what you're thinking and feeling with me, no matter how uncomfortable it makes you." It was asking a lot, and I knew it, but I had to hold my ground.
"Yeah, fine. Okay. I'll do my best, I promise." He flashed a gorgeous smile, and there went my knees again, wobbling like crazy. And of course, Xavier was right there and hooked an arm around my waist to catch me. "I gotcha."
I inhaled his masculine scent and let out a shaky breath as our gazes locked. "Don't make me regret this, Xavier."
"I won't," he promised and captured my mouth again in a kiss so hot it burned my lips, singed off all my clothes, and turned every inch of my skin a deep shade of pink. "Fuck," he growled when he pulled back and his gaze raked over my body. "I've missed you."
I smiled and licked my lips. My pulse raced so hard I could hear it. I put my hands to his chest, where I felt his heart slamming against my palms. "I've missed you too."
And once again, his lips were on mine. They devoured me until my head was spinning and my breath caught in my chest. It was the single best kiss of my life, and my thighs were sticky, my nipples were hard, and I was ready to take him into my body. Xavier pulled back and eyed me carefully. "Good?"
I shook my head. "Great. Just. Can't. Breathe."
"Good." A wicked smile crossed his face, and the next time his lips touched my skin, it was the corner of my mouth, the side of my neck, and across my collarbone.
He nibbled my earlobe and licked a trail of heat up the edge of the shell.
Xavier kissed my shoulders, the crook of my arm, the hot flesh beneath my boobs.
He kissed me all over—except for all the good parts—until I gasped and trembled beneath him. "Fuck, you taste so good."
"Xavier," I groaned. "Stop teasing me. Please."
"I'm not teasing you, babe. It's called foreplay," he whispered as he dragged his fingertips up the inside of my legs.
Up and up he went until he found my clit, swollen and vibrating with need.
"See how sensitive you are," he said and flicked his tongue against my clit, making my hips buck off the bed.
"Yes!"
He smiled even wider, his gaze fixed on me as he dipped one finger into the pool of moisture inside me, pushing it deep before he pulled it out, pressing his thumb and forefinger together.
"Look at that, Rosalee. Look at how wet your pussy is for me.
" He spread his fingers apart, and it was so wickedly dirty I felt more moisture rush down my legs.
"Fuck."
His nostrils flared, and he kept smiling while he rubbed those two fingers together before he dipped two fingers inside of me and pulled them out, rubbing moisture all over my clit.
"Your pussy is so greedy," he growled. "She missed me too.
" He spoke dirty words while his fingers plunged in and out of my pussy and his thumb rubbed rough circles against my clit.
"Xavier," I moaned and rolled my hips, my gaze glued to his face. "Please."
"You ready to come, Rosalee? You gonna drench my hands in your sweet pussy juices?"
I nodded, unable to say anything because the beauty of him in the depths of this dirty deed stole my breath. "Yes."
He fucked me with his fingers and teased my clit as my body tensed and my toes curled.
My back arched into his touch, and then he stopped, flashing that teasing smile at me.
"On my tongue," he commanded and slid down, spreading me wider with his broad shoulders.
He hooked his arms around my thighs and pulled me closer before his lips, tongue, and teeth feasted on my pussy.
"Oh my," I cried out when his tongue thrust inside of me and he applied more pleasure to my clit. "Yes, Xavier. I'm...yes!" My body shook violently when the orgasm hit, and my legs wrapped around his neck while aftershocks jerked my body in every direction.
He continued to kiss my pussy until every ounce of pleasure was wrung from my body, and then he kissed me gently on the inside of my thighs, my hipbones, my belly, and all the way up to my mouth.
"You are so fucking gorgeous when you come, Rosalee.
Watching you go wild and chase your pleasure? Hottest fucking thing ever."
"That was perfect, but I need you, Xavier. All of you."
His lips parted into a gorgeous smile that made my pussy pound hard from inside my body at the same time he slid deep on one long, slow stroke. "Fuck. So fucking good."
He felt amazing, so long and thick inside of me that I already felt another orgasm building.
I hooked an arm around him and pulled him close, licking and sucking his bottom lip while his cock plunged in and out of my body.
The kiss was wet and hot, and Xavier must've liked it too because his hips moved faster.
Deeper.
Harder.
My hands dug into his shoulders, and my hips bucked up and rolled, urging him to give me more.
He thrust harder and deeper, and I moaned loudly as my head thrashed back and forth. "Keep your eyes on me," he commanded, and I did, watching as those gray eyes turned black and then to molten silver while he pounded with more naked hunger, more intensity.
Just. More.
It was wild. It was primal. It was a fiery clashing of bodies, and I couldn't hold back.
"Oh, good God, yes!" I clenched around him and shouted my pleasure, which he quickly covered with a kiss so fierce it brought tears to my eyes.
His hands touched my face gently, like I was something precious to him, and it was so at odds with the needy way he claimed my body that I knew it was useless to hold back.
He was everything I wanted in a man, everything a man should be, and he claimed me like I was a prize.
A treasure. "Xavier!" His name was the punctuation mark on an orgasm that tore me into millions of tiny pieces.
"Ah, fuck, Rosalee. Baby. Fuck."
I smiled at his incoherent words while he thrust harder and deeper until I felt the warm spray of his orgasm fill me up to bursting. My orgasm went on and on, gripping and squeezing him tight until my body went slack against the bed. "Damn."
"You're incredible, Rosalee. So fucking incredible." He kissed me again, and it was slow, wet, and teasing. Hot and demanding. He claimed me with that kiss and branded me as his.
My head spun, and when he pulled back and rolled away, my heart seized. But he pulled me close and kissed the top of my head. "Stay?" I whispered the question and laid my head on his chest.
"Nowhere else I'd rather be," he replied around a yawn.
His heart slowed to a steady thump that lulled me into a deep sleep full of fantasies and fairy tales of a long life with Xavier Holloway at my side.