Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
BECK
After too few hours, I woke to find Everly still asleep in my lap, her cheek resting on my chest. She was curled up against me, so peaceful and trusting, and knowing that only thrust the knife deeper into my gut.
Because all I could think about was her throaty little moans from last night and how pretty she’d look taking my cock.
Christ. What the fuck had I done?
I didn’t make friends easily. Hell, I didn’t make friends at all.
I was a private guy who didn’t let anyone inside the inner circle that currently held only Ford—not even the rest of my siblings had made it through that door.
But Everly hadn’t let that stop her. She’d barreled her way into my life and hadn’t let up since, a one-woman bulldozer.
She was the first person outside of family not to be put off by my demeanor.
The best thing that had happened to me in years.
And I’d gone and fucked it up last night. All because she made my dick hard—which wasn’t news to me. The proof of that was wedged against my stomach, thick and throbbing as the weight of her pressed into it.
She deserved better than this. She deserved someone who wouldn’t take advantage of her when she was at her lowest. Who wouldn’t devour her on a goddamn chair two hours after her house had caught on fire.
Jesus. I needed to get my shit together and be that man for her—the best friend she’d come to count on—and not just some guy with a hard-on who wanted to fuck her.
I was her only support in Starlight Cove, and I’d just jeopardized that for a quick make-out session.
I needed some space to clear my head, but I wasn’t going to leave her. I couldn’t—not just for her peace of mind, but for mine. Which left me only one option—a shower. And from the state of my dick, I could certainly use one.
Thankfully, Everly slept like the dead, so when I stood with her in my arms, she didn’t stir. And she didn’t so much as twitch when I set her back on the chair and draped the blanket over her before silently making my way to the bathroom.
Once inside, I stripped and climbed into the shower, not bothering to wait for the water to heat up.
Maybe the jolt in temperature would knock some sense into me.
What the hell had I been thinking? She’d just lost everything—everything—she had, and I’d shoved my tongue down her throat.
Had settled my hands on her hips and guided her hot little pussy over me until I was nearly ready to explode in my pants like a goddamn teenager.
With a growl of frustration, I grabbed the soap and started scrubbing, as if that would absolve me of the memories from last night.
But the scent did nothing to dissuade my throbbing cock, recalling the smell of it on Everly.
Great. So now I was going to get hard every time I washed myself, like Pavlov’s fucking dog.
When Everly had dropped into my lap last night, smelling like me, wearing my clothes, and looking like a fucking wet dream, all bright eyes and pouty lips, it’d taken all I had to stay still.
To not move a fucking inch. I hadn’t known what to do or how to respond—what was appropriate in that situation, ’cause I sure as fuck didn’t know.
But then her uncertainty had taken the uncertainty out of it for me, because I’d be whatever she needed me to be—always had, always would.
And at that point, she’d needed my comfort.
So I’d wrapped my arms around her and prayed she hadn’t noticed my cock growing harder with every second that passed. That had lasted all of three minutes before catastrophe struck.
One press of her lips against mine, and I was a changed man.
But still, I held back, refusing to cross that line after what she’d been through. She’d been scared and anxious and had probably still been in shock.
Never mind the timid little way her tongue had peeked out, swiping against my lip. Or how she’d squirmed in my lap, like she’d spread her legs and sit right on my cock if I guided her to.
I muttered a curse, forcing myself back to the present.
Bracing my hands on the tile wall, I clenched my eyes shut as if that would be enough to will away the memory of her taste.
As if I could force my cock to deflate simply by shoving those thoughts aside.
But there was no erasing those memories, because no matter what I did, the image of her haunted me—cheeks flushed, eyes bright, lips swollen from my kiss. From my teeth and my tongue.
I couldn’t deny anymore that I wanted to see my marks all over her. Wanted to bite and suck down the long column of her neck. Wanted to lick across her collarbones, suck those perfect tits into my mouth, and devour her pussy.
But it was wrong. I shouldn’t be thinking about my best friend that way. Shouldn’t be fantasizing about her in the shower with me, on her knees as she took me deep into her mouth, all the way to her throat, her eyes wide and innocent while she choked on my cock.
I shouldn’t be, but I was.
With a growl, I wrapped my hand around my shaft and gripped tightly.
I swallowed a groan as I stroked up the length, imagining her hands, her mouth, her pussy on me.
Imagining the two of us recreating Chapter Twenty-Two, her spread out on my bed, blindfolded and bound and begging for my cock.
Then it switched to last week’s book—Chapter Seventeen—watching as Everly got herself off with a toy while I directed how fast and how hard and how much.
Then it was Chapter Twelve of the first book we’d read together, bending her over a balcony above a busy street and fucking her where anyone could see.
My balls started to tingle, my impending orgasm breathing down my neck.
I closed my eyes and groaned, hoping she didn’t hear me over the sound of the spray.
Hoping she was still asleep and would never know anything about this.
I could just pretend it never happened. Pretend I hadn’t tasted ambrosia on her tongue last night.
Pretend it hadn’t felt like everything had slid into place when she’d straddled my lap and rocked against me, my name a breathy sigh on her lips.
Pretend she hadn’t completely fucking changed me.
I had to. Because if I didn’t, there was only destruction ahead of us. Only heartbreak and a messy end to what we had. And I wasn’t ready to give her up. Not yet. Not ever.
As my orgasm pressed down on me, I tightened my grip around my cock, swiping my thumb across the head as I quickened my strokes and replayed that sweet little moan she’d breathed straight into my mouth.
I imagined it was the heat of her pussy surrounding me instead of the poor substitute of my hand, and that was all it took.
I groaned her name as I came, spilling over my fingers to thoughts of her coming around me.
A sharp gasp sounded in the room, and I snapped my eyes open, whipping my head toward the door even as shudders still racked my body.
And there she stood, lip caught between her teeth and eyes wide as she drank me in from head to toe.
The glass shower doors hid absolutely nothing from her, least of all my hand wrapped around my cock as I coaxed out the last ripple of my orgasm.
“Sunshine,” I choked out, bracing myself on the wall.
“Oh my God. Am I still dreaming?” she asked, her voice raspy.
“I—”
“’Cause I just had a dream about you.” She took another step closer, her eyes glued on my cock, and the greedy bastard was already kicking back to life at her attention. “But you didn’t look like that.”
I swallowed, sure I was going to regret asking this, but I couldn’t help myself. “How did I look?”
“Well, for starters”—she licked her lips—“you definitely weren’t that big.”
“Jesus, Everly,” I groaned. “You can’t say shit like that to me.”
“Why not?”
“Because we’re friends. You’re not supposed to— We’re not—”
“We did last night.”
“We shouldn’t have.”
Her eyes flashed up to mine, and she squared her shoulders, determination written in her gaze. “You didn’t like it?”
“Christ.” I squeezed my eyes shut, curling my hand into a fist as I braced it against the tile. “Of course I fucking liked it. You just watched me come all over my hand to memories of it.”
She breathed out a breathy little, “Oh,” as she licked her lips, her gaze darting between my eyes and where my cock jutted toward her. “That was to thoughts of me?”
The correct answer was no. It was what I should’ve said, and then I should’ve turned my back on her and shut down this thing we’d started before it could go too far.
Before either of us got hurt. My mind warred with itself, half of it wanting nothing more than to tell her to get out so we could salvage this friendship that meant everything to me, while the other half was desperate to invite her in to join me.
But it wouldn’t have mattered what I said, because Everly made the decision for us both. She whipped the shirt over her head and allowed her borrowed pants to drop from her waist, exposing her completely to me, every inch of her on display.
“Oh fuck,” I breathed, too stunned to say anything else.
She was gorgeous, her hair a riot of flames around her face, freckles scattered across her body—ones I’d known and seen and touched before, and ones that were all new that I wanted to map with my fingers and my tongue.
Her nipples were the same shade as her lips, and Jesusfuck, I’d never be able to look at her smiling mouth again without seeing her perfect tits and imagining them in my mouth.
“You said, ‘not tonight.’” She took a step toward me. “Well…it’s not tonight…”