Chapter 14
Alex
Next morning I’m woken by the sound of Dane clunking around the room in his underwear, tidying up.
Apparently he’s a neat freak and an early riser.
Yikes. We really are opposites. I can forgive those deep character flaws because my body is still gently buzzing from the pleasure he gave me last night.
I shield my eyes against the cold light streaming through the window and drink in his muscular silhouette.
“Morning,” I say.
He turns and gives me the biggest smile. My heart turns over.
“Look at you, lying in my bed,” he says softly.
I hold out my hands to him and he come straight to me, climbing in beside me.
His body is cold and I crush him close, rubbing his back to warm him up.
It doesn’t take long for his lips to find mine, his tongue pressing hot and hungry into my mouth with no regard for my morning breath.
He grinds against me, letting me feel his fast-growing erection.
“Ready for me to fuck you now?” he murmurs.
“I was ready last night, but you fell asleep like an old man.”
“You fell asleep first!” He sounds genuinely affronted until I start to smile and he realizes he fell for it.
“So competitive,” I say.
He rolls his eyes. With one lazy hand he gropes for his bag, which he can reach from here, and shows me his supplies. Lube and condoms.
“You really had this whole trip planned out, didn’t you?” I prop myself up on one elbow to give him the stink-eye. “You didn’t even know if I’d say yes, but you had the nerve to bring all of this.”
“What can I say? Over-confidence is my middle name.”
I used to think that was really true. Now I know what a mess of insecurity and fears lurked beneath his overconfident, sporty shell. He’s shown me all of it.
After a trip to the bathroom to brush my teeth, I glance out the bedroom window and freeze.
“Er, Dane? You do realize it’s snowing out there?”
“Oh. Yeah. Nice, isn’t it?” he says.
“I hope we don’t get stranded here. Our flight home is tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry. It’ll probably melt by then. Nothing we can do about it anyway.”
“I guess.”
“Relax, forget about the snow. I’m going to fuck you so hard you forget your own name.”
“I thought forgetting your own name was your thing, Dean,” I shoot back.
That spurs him to grab me around the waist. He throws me onto the bed and starts to tickle me as revenge.
“Sorry, I’m sorry,” I gasp. I’m breathless with laughing, but it doesn’t mean I’m enjoying it.
He stops right away. “You don’t like being tickled?”
“I hate it. It’s my kryptonite,” I admit.
“Now I know, I’ll have to use it when you piss me off.”
I shake my head hard. “No way. Please. I really hate it.”
He brushes the back of his knuckles across my cheek and his eyes get soft. “Joking, idiot.” He takes a breath and just looks down at me for a moment. “You have such puppy dog eyes right now, you know that?” he says.
“Do I?” I have no idea what to say to that. It’s kinda embarrassing, but he makes it sound like a compliment.
“I used to think you were so sharp and spiky. I never saw this soft side before. At least, not for years.”
“I am sharp and spiky,” I say.
He smiles, but he looks sad. “You’re not. You just didn’t trust me enough.”
I can’t deny that. But I want to kiss the sadness from his face, make him stop thinking about the past.
“I trust you now,” I whisper.
I pull him close and tease his lips with my tongue. He lets me in, and I kiss him deep and long until the mood shifts from contemplative to heated. He pulls back and nibbles at the back of my ear.
“Okay,” he breathes against my neck. “I believe you. Now, are you ready for me?”
Hell, yeah.
“I’m ready.”
I raise my ass for him, not caring how needy and begging the move seems. I wouldn’t have shown him so much desperation before, but it’s different now.
He kisses the tops of my shoulders and down the curve of my back.
Dips his head low and kisses the soft skin of my inner thighs, making my head spin.
Never mind all his big talk about fucking me hard, he’s careful as he preps me, carding his other hand softly through my hair and kneading my prostate with lazy circular motions until I’m whimpering and moaning for him.
“Now,” I beg. “Please.”
“Not yet,” he says.
He dips his head underneath me and starts kissing inside my thighs, making my whole body quiver and go boneless.
He runs his tongue behind my balls and strokes at my dick with his hand, but too slowly, just enough to keep me gagging.
Basically, he’s being an asshole tease. I never saw this playful side before.
We were always in too much of a rush, hooking up in changing rooms, places that were never our own.
Always aware that we were in hiding. Now there’s plenty of time…
and the asshole is exploiting it big time, bringing me close to the edge and them letting me fall away again, kissing me and taunting me until I can barely breathe.
“What do you want from me?” I moan, barely knowing what I’m saying. “I already said please.”
“I know you did, sweetheart,” he whispers.
The endearment drives me even wilder. He’s never called me anything like that before. The word vibrates with meaning: arousal but something deeper too.
“Dane, come on…”
He flips me onto my back and gets on top, stroking my hair back from my face, smiling at my desperation.
He kisses my lips, and at the same moment the tip of his cock finally, finally presses at my hole, slick with lube.
The burning sensation dies as he slowly eases deeper and waits, motionless, giving me time to open up for him.
We stare at each other, hanging in a moment that stretches for a long time.
Dane deep inside me, my arms around his neck.
“Ready then?” he says. There’s a hint of the old challenge there: the way he looks at me across the tennis court.
I grin back. “Go,” I whisper.
I tighten my arms around him and raise my hips, helping him chase the right angle until he’s hitting my spot.
The first time sends my thoughts scrambling.
I moan, bucking my hips, desperate for more of him.
I hook my legs up, over his shoulders, as he drives deeper.
He speeds up, nailing my prostate again and again until I see stars and I feel like every bone in my body dissolves into pure pleasure.
I’m clawing at his back with my nails and he’s grunting with effort.
“Fuck, Dane, this is good,” I breathe. “Best ever.”
He moans an answer without words. He feels it too.
The intensity is like nothing between us before.
So much fiercer than when we hated each other.
I need to kiss him, see him, so I unhook my legs from his shoulders and take his face in my hands.
He starts stroking my dick and all the time he’s deep inside me, making me his.
It’s way too much. I’m not going to be able to hold on much longer.
“When we get home I’m going to tell everyone about us,” he says. “I’m going to show you off to everyone.”
A huge smile breaks out on my face, as uncontrollable as my body’s movements.
“You are?” I whisper, breathless.
“I am. I’m going to tell everyone you’re mine.” He drives his dick deep, again and again, making me gasp. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you, sweetheart?”
I moan yes. Every nerve in my body fizzes, filled with the electricity of this moment. He’s finally claimed me. It feels fucking amazing. Worth seven years. Worth the wait.
His tongue presses deep in my mouth, and I stroke myself as he hits deep inside yet again.
It finishes me. I come hard all over my own chest. Dane growls as he watches the spasm rip through my body.
He throws his head back, and I feel him pulse deep within me.
His breath is loud and fast as he buries his face in my neck, clamping us together through his climax.
When he looks at me again I just stare at him, breathless. I think I’ve forgotten how to talk.
“Okay?” he says. “Was I too rough?”
I swallow. “No, no. I’m fine. Just…. overwhelmed.”
“Why overwhelmed?”
“Because…” Shit, this is going to sound stupid. “We don’t usually look at each other so much while we do it.”
He gives me a lopsided grin. “I mesmerized you?”
“Something like that.”
“Same,” he says. “I’ve never looked so closely at your eyes before. They’re not just brown. There are little flecks of gold too. I’ve never dared look for so long before.”
“You were afraid I’d punch you or something?” I tease.
“Maybe.”
He ease out of me then flops onto his back and throws his arms up above his head, totally relaxed. He closes his eyes, showing me that he very much isn’t afraid of being punched by me anymore.
“I think I’m falling for you,” he says to the ceiling, eyes still shut.
My heart stops. I can’t answer. I’ve been falling for him for a long time. But I thought all I’d ever get from him were sneaked moments in changing rooms, fucking each other with as much annoyance as passion.
“Anything you want to say to me?” Dane says, sounding so plaintive.
I can’t resist taking the piss. “Hmmm…” I make a thinking noise. “Can’t think of anything right now, no.”
“Alex,” he whimpers.
“Persuade me, then.”
He pulls me down on top of him and his tongue slides into my mouth. Then he pulls back and his ice blue eyes stare deep into mine, hot as fire.
“I’m falling for you too,” I say, barely above a whisper
He folds me into his body and nuzzles my hair, going quiet.
It feels so good being enveloped by him, listening to his soft, satisfied breaths.
I should get up and get us cleaned up, but instead I surrender to the heat of his body.
He feels so perfect wrapped around me. I let my muscles relax into luxurious sleepiness.
Then he says, “Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Can’t talk. Sleeping.”
“Just for a minute.”
“If you must,” I grumble. If he wants me to think, he needs to stop wrecking my brain like that.
“Do you think it’s stupid I changed my name to Dane?” he says. “Like I’m always putting on a front?”
I wasn’t expecting that. It wakes me up fast. Is it that different from the way I dress? Just a way of expressing yourself. If he feels more like a Dane than a Dean, what’s the problem?
“I don’t think it’s stupid,” I say. “Do you want to know a secret?”
“Always,” he says.
“When I was younger and I was afraid to do something, I used to imagine I was a superhero named Alexx.”
“Alex is your name,” he says, sounding confused.
“No, it had two X’s.”
He laughs. “And the extra X gave you special powers?”
“It did,” I say seriously.
He kisses my forehead. “You’re too cute. So what were these powers?”
“The usual. Flying. Super speed. I imagined I was Alexx when I wanted to jump off the swings or climb something high. And do you want to hear something even dumber?” I look down but make myself say it. “I still do it sometimes. If I get nervous on stage with the band, I imagine I’m Alexx.”
He strokes my cheek and I look up.
“So that’s why you’re such a badass on stage,” he says.
“Yep. Don’t tell the guys? Olivia knows, but I don’t want them to know.”
“I swear,” he says.
I believe him, totally. Not too long ago, I would never have trusted him with that.
He kisses me again, then gets up and wanders over to the window.
“The snow’s really coming down out there,” he says. “Don’t think we’ll be going out for a while.”
I glance at the window. It looks like a solid white sheet.
“I guess we don’t really need to go out.” I start to smile, planning ahead. “Gives me more time to fuck you right back. You know how competitive I am.”
Dane looks back to me, meeting my smile. “I know, sweetheart.”