Chapter 40
40
brIAR
L eo being this sweet is something I’m not quite sure I can completely comprehend. Sure, he’s been nice. Cute even. But the level of care he’s shown me is on another level, and I would be lying if I said it didn’t scare me a little.
But I think maybe, just maybe, it’s because I’ve never quite felt this cared for in my whole life.
The reality of it comes crashing down on me like a tidal wave.
Freezing as I feel him palm my shoulder, the water suddenly feels like an ice bath. Turning slightly, I watch him as his big green eyes stare at me in surprise.
“You okay?” he asks.
“I—”
What’s the answer to that? Because I’m not. I don’t think so, anyway. I’m supposedly engaged to Leo Warner. I used to be tied to a man who verbally abused me, and walking away took everything in me. I failed at marriage.
And now I’m going to fail at an engagement on a national, possibly even global scale.
Leo Warner is beloved around the globe. He put his team on the map, and other than his recent escapades, he’s done well. He’s the National Football League’s Golden Boy no matter how much he fucked up.
No matter what he’s done in the past, I’m going to be the villain the second this engagement fails. The second he walks away to go find something real.
I swallow roughly, sinking down a little.
As if reading my mind, Leo leans down, his palm on the back of my head. “I wish they told me, Sunny, or I’d never put you in this position.”
And I believe him.
I believe him with every fiber of my being.
In a moment of pure insanity, my head swivels, my eyes meeting his, the tepid bathwater splashing on the floor.
“Have sex with me,” I tell him, watching as his hands still, his eyes widening as his mouth opens, but no words come out.
Shaking his head gently, Leo regains his composure. “I don’t think that’s a good idea right now,” he tells me, his eyes flickering out the large window in front of us overlooking the harbor.
“I’m an adult and of sound mind,” I defend vehemently. “I just need to forget everything. People have sex for much less.”
His green eyes slide back to mine, the crease between his brows furrowing just slightly as he studies me, trying to figure me out.
“Please.”
I’m not sure if it was the way I was five seconds from pathetically begging him, or if his resolve finally just simply snapped, and I’m choosing not to think about it too hard, but when he grabbed my towel from the hanger, opening it for me, my heart leapt from my chest, my whole body practically vibrating with anticipation for what’s about to come.
Grabbing for the towel, Leo shakes his head, his eyes focused so intensely on mine that a shiver makes its way down my back. Licking my lips nervously, I bite down on the inside of my cheek.
Gently, without breaking eye contact, Leo envelopes my arm in the towel, carefully dragging the soft fabric down to my fingers. Moving slightly, he starts on the other arm before wrapping it around my back.
He bites his lip as he wraps it around my front, a silent question on his face.
I nod, giving him permission.
Letting out a breath, Leo loosens the towel, letting it rub down my damp skin as his hands make their way down my chest. They pause above my breasts as my breathing deepens, my eyes shutting as he continues over them, cupping them through the towel as he dries me off.
My head falls back, and if it wasn’t for the fact that his massive frame makes any movement hard to go unnoticed, I may have missed him dropping to his knees, continuing to drag the towel down, his warm breath on my belly.
I refuse to look.
When he reaches my legs, he wraps both hands through the towel around my right leg before dragging down slowly, and when he reaches my feet, he moves onto the next.
The whole process is so painfully slow it makes my knees weak with want, my head swimming with what I desperately want him to do to me when he’s done.
I’m so distracted that I nearly jump when I feel his lips on my hip bone. Gasping, I open my eyes, looking down at him to find him looking up at me, his lips making their way from one hip to another, a trail of light kisses in their wake.
“Leo…” I whimper, but before I can get anything else out, he bites me.
Bites. Me.
And it feels like all my blood rushes south.
Fisting his hair with a moan, I yank up, forcing him to his feet before wrapping my arm around his neck, my lips instantly finding his.
It’s a fight for dominance at first, a clashing of teeth that I’d normally hate, a push and pull that would normally send me running.
A guttural growl comes from deep within his chest as his large hand palms my neck, forcing my head where he needs it to be to take the kiss even deeper somehow as his other hand wraps around my body, making its way down my back to my ass before sliding down to my leg, hoisting it up to his hip.
Letting go of my neck, he helps me wrap my other leg around him, his hands beneath me holding me up as he walks out the door, practically kicking it closed.
I break the kiss as he goes, my tongue working along his pulse at his throat before nipping the skin below his ear, causing his chest to vibrate in another moan.
“God damn,” he whispers before capturing my mouth again as I fall back onto the soft bed, his body following mine, caging me.
Pulling away for a minute, he studies me. “I don’t want to do anything you don’t want,” he whispers, giving me space.
I shake my head. “Anything.”
“Briar, do you want to be in control here?”
I worry my lip before letting out a confident “No.”
I just want to feel. Just want to let lose. To not feel so wound up for once in my life.
I want him to make me forget everything that’s happening, and I know he can.
He nods, studying me for a second more before his mouth comes down onto my peaked nipples, lightly sucking on them as his fingers run up the inside of my leg.
God, this is the man I’m going to have to be fake engaged to come tomorrow. The person I’m surely going to get a million texts about. And I haven’t even told my?—
His lips clamp down on my nipple, his tongue flickering over the tip, and I gasp at the same time as he plunges his fingers into my soaked pussy, his palm adding pressure to my clit as he works me.
And I shamelessly ride his hand, whimpering as a shiver runs through me, a pressure building that I’ve never quite experienced like this before.
Not even when he was on his knees pleasuring me before.
Before him, a man had never made me come. And I’ve never felt it this fast, either.
“Leo, please,” I beg, unsure what to do.
“Please what?”
“I just need you.”
“You have me,” he says with a note of almost… concern? As if he thought I meant anything other than needing him sexually.
If I’m being honest with myself, I think I do, but I shake the thought from my head, my eyes squeezing closed as I admit, “I need you to fuck me. Now, Leo.”
A small smile forms on his stupid perfect lips as his eyes light up, his tongue peeking out to run along his lip.
“You’re a demanding little thing, aren’t you?”
I scowl at him as his fingers hook, running along a spot that makes my eyes roll to the back of my head, my back arching off the bed.
“Take your fucking clothes off, Leo,” I grit through clenched teeth, praying he decides that he should actually listen to me.
But of course he doesn’t.
“I don’t know, I kind of?—”
“Leo, shut the fuck up and take off your fucking pants,” I demand. There’s a time for fooling around, but right now isn’t it.
For a second I think I’ve upset him as he freezes, but when the smirk creeps onto his lips, I know things are okay.
Getting up, Leo peels his shirt off in one swift movement, the muscles in his arms flexing in the most mouthwatering way.
Watching me, he pulls his pants down, his dick springing free, harder than a god damn flagpole.
My skin heats as I think about the fact that I’m the reason for it.
“What do you want, Briar?” he asks, his eyes darkening as his large palm wraps around himself, stroking it slowly.
I don’t have it within me to look away.
“C—condom,” I mumble out, nearly choking on the words.
Reaching into the bedside table, Leo pulls out a condom, ripping the foil and yanking it out. I hadn’t rummaged through the bedside tables before, and add asking him about why they’re there to my mental checklist.
Slipping it on, he looks at me. “I’m clean by the way. I haven’t been with anyone since I was last tested.”
Add when were you last with someone? to my list of questions.
I nod. “I haven’t been either—” I tell him even though it’s a given.
“Now what do you want?” he asks. And I know he’s trying to be a gentleman. I know he’s trying to be careful with me because of the circumstances.
But it’s infuriating.
“I—” I stop, not knowing what I want.
“Use your words, Crosby.”
Biting my cheek, I work up the nerve to spit it out. “I want you to fuck me,” I tell him, taking a deep breath.
I’ve never been this fucking awkward before. But then again, I’ve never had someone ask me what I wanted in bed.
It was always about what the other person wanted.
Taking a step toward me, Leo climbs onto the bed, caging me beneath him as he props himself up on one arm, using the other to run his fingers up my side to my neck .
Cupping my head, he brings his lips to mine. “You can ask me to do whatever you want, Briar. You want me to take control, tell me. You want to take it? You just say the words and you’re in the driver’s seat, got it?”
I nod, my lips parting.
His eyes stare into mine as I feel the tip of his cock at my entrance, a low hiss escaping his lips as he pushes into me, and my mouth opens with a moan, his lips instantly capturing it as his tongue clashes with mine.
With one solid push, he buries himself completely, and I gasp. He gives me a second to adjust, watching me until I nod.
Pulling out, that small smirk creeps back onto his lips before he thrusts into me again. Cursing, I move my hands to his chest, running my nails down his skin lightly as he sucks in a breath. Staring down at me, he pulls out, slowly fucking me.
“I know you can fuck me harder than this,” I quip, my eyes narrowing despite my whole body feeling as if it was steeped in gasoline as he dangles the match above me.
Slamming into me, his eyes narrow back. “Have you thought about me fucking you before tonight?” he asks me, continuing his slow movements, the growing thrum of need growing more and more intense within me.
“Yes,” I admit, finding no need to deny it. The man ate me out across the room. Literally got on his knees for me. Of course I thought about him fucking me.
“Did you touch yourself to the thought?” he asks, slipping out of me.
I frown at the loss of him. “I did,” I tell him, and he slams back into me, my body jolting.
He picks up his pace, his head lolling to the side as he nearly whimpers above me.
“Tell me you’re mine, Briar,” he asks .
Pressure builds deep within me as my body tightens. “I don’t?—”
“For tonight, Briar. Tell me you’re mine just for tonight.”
Fuck.
No matter what I want to say, the words “I’m yours,” fall from my lips so easily it scares me, and if I wasn’t on the precipice of an orgasm, maybe I’d overthink it more.
“Come for me, Briar,” he whispers, and it’s all I need for it to all come crashing down on me.
I can barely keep my eyes open as I clamp down on him, the tidal wave of heat completely enveloping me in a never ending orgasm, my body hot and needy as he curses out beautiful praise I can barely hear over the roar in my ears.
Burying himself as deep as he possibly can, Leo’s body grows stiff as he shouts something that sounds strangely like my name, his cock pulsing inside of me as my entire body shakes, my head still fuzzy.
We had both laid there, scared to move before he finally pulled out of me with a kiss on my sensitive lips.
Sitting up, I watch as he pulls the condom off, tying it off as he heads to the bathroom, throwing it into the trash before coming back to me.
Not bothering to get dressed, he climbs into bed as I head to the bathroom myself, cleaning myself up.
When I return, I find Leo watching me intensely.
He’s always watching me intensely.
“Why do you always do that?” I ask, pulling the covers back before climbing in.
“Do what?”
“Look at me like you’re studying me.”
“Because I am.”
“What for?”
Grabbing my side, Leo pulls me into him, burying his face into my neck. “You’re a hard person to read, Briar. I just want to know you.”
“You do know me.”
He shakes his head.
“I want to know everything about you. I want to know when you’re feeling sad, or when you’re mad, but I especially want to know when you’re happy.”
“I feel like I make it pretty obvious when I’m happy,” I say, pulling away to look at him.
“No you don’t,” he chuckles. “But the left side of your lips usually twitches when you like something. When you’re happy about something. I’ve watched you enough times to know that, at least.”
I stare at him. “I don’t understand.”
“I’m not sure what there is to not understand,” he laughs. “I want to know everything about you, Briar, and if that means learning all those little tells to make sure I know what you’re thinking across the room, then I’ll do it.”
Heat creeps up my neck and to my cheeks as I realize that he truly means his words.
“What is this?” I whisper, my hands on his chest. He’s soft yet firm somehow, feeling more like a teddy bear than a statue, and it feels more comforting than I’d care to admit.
“It’s anything you want it to be, Briar.”
“I don’t know what any of this means.”
“I want whatever you want, Sunny.”
“And what if I decide I want you?”
The words are out before I can stop them, and my lips clamp shut as I silently slap myself.
“Then you have me.”
I sigh into him, deciding I’m too tired to attempt figuring out what that means in the grand scheme of this weird fucked up fake love story we have going on.
“Okay,” I yawn.
“Go to sleep, Crosby,” he chuckles.
“Speaking of, is it weird calling me Crosby in bed?” I smile to myself at the question.
Leo thinks for a second. “Now that you say it, it does feel a little weird. But I can assure you, Briar. I’m not thinking of a single other thing when I’m fucking you.”
Nuzzling into him, I smile. “Noted. Night, Warner.”
His arms tighten around me, and I’m not quite sure when I drift off.
But I do know that it’s the easiest I’ve fallen asleep in what feels like years.