15. Chapter 15
Chapter 15
Dwight looked down at the sparkling ring in his palm, and his eyes lifted to mine in incredulity. “You don’t mean that.”
But I did. I’d been carrying a heavy weight, like a thousand pound blackbird roosting on my shoulders, and I hadn’t even realized he was there until my words gave him wings. Forced him to fly away and leave me light and free.
“I do mean it. I’m not going to live like this.”
“But we can get through this. I love you, and you love me.” I stared wordlessly at him, and his head cocked to the side. “Don’t you?”
“I did love you, Dwight, but…” I heaved all the air from my lungs before taking a fortifying breath. “You’ve been chipping away at it until there was only a thread left hanging.”
“But there’s a thread,” he cajoled. “We can rebuild what we had around that.”
“That thread was snipped the second you called me a bridezilla.”
His hand dragged down his face, and he suddenly looked very tired. “I didn’t mean that. I know you’re not, Lehra. You’ve been nothing but sweet and accommodating. I should have… I should have supported you.”
“Thanks for saying that, but the damage is done.” My thumb and forefinger stroked one of the soft robe ties as I gathered my words. “For future relationships though, you need to think about your priorities, Dwight. Your family will always be your family, but you have to make room at the top of your heart for the person you love. They need to come first.”
He swallowed hard. “I’ll work on it,” he said, and I liked to think he actually would. But probably not. “Can I kiss you goodbye?”
“You haven’t kissed me for months, Dwight. Why would you want to kiss me now?”
“But it would have been uncomfortable since my mother was always with us.”
“Think about that statement, and you’ll see exactly why you’re now single,” I retorted, walking to the door of the hotel room and opening it in an invitation for him to leave.
Two people fell into the room, one landing on her knees. Nicolette . Gianna helped her up, and their guilty eyes darted to each other and back to me as they stood side by side.
“We were just going to get some, uh, ice,” Nicolette muttered, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. I looked pointedly at the eavesdroppers’ empty hands, and apple-red bloomed on their cheeks.
“But we realized we forgot the bucket,” Gianna said, grabbing Nic’s hand. “We’ll just go get that.” And they sprinted across the hall and knocked furiously on the guys’ door. “Let us in. Now!”
Once they slipped inside, I allowed my slight smile at their antics to fade away and turned back to my former fiancé. “You can go now.”
He trudged like his feet were made of lead and stopped beside me. I looked up at him, and he seemed to find the finality in my gaze because he nodded. “Goodbye, Lehra.”
“Bye, Dwight.”
As soon as he walked out, I closed the door behind him and leaned my back against it, waiting for the tears to come.
But they didn’t.
I wasn’t sure why. Maybe I was in shock that my relationship of over two years was over. Or maybe I was a bit relieved that I’d dodged a bullet. Nonetheless, once I was sure I wouldn’t be a blubbering mess, I slipped the room’s key card into the pocket of my robe and went across the hall to the guys’ room.
Before I could even knock, the door opened, and I was yanked inside and directly into Nicolette and Gianna’s arms.
“Oh, honey. We heard,” Nic cooed. I knew these bitches weren’t getting ice. “I’m so sorry.”
“Me too,” Gianna sniffled. “Just let it all out. We’re here for you.”
I laughed and gently pushed them away. “I’m okay. I promise.”
Two sets of green eyes peered expectantly at me like I was going to collapse into a heap at any moment. “You’re sure?” Nicolette asked, and I nodded. “How do you feel?”
“Would I sound like a total bitch if I said I feel a little relieved and a lot hungry?”
“Not at all,” Artie assured me, rising and kissing the top of my head. “You’ve been going through a lot, so I think it’s normal to feel relieved that all that stress is off your shoulders.”
“I say we go get the lady some greasy food,” Cruz suggested from his perch on the chair in the corner.
“I’m ordering tater twats in honor of Lehra finally getting rid of that twat she was engaged to,” Artie announced, making us all laugh.
After a long dinner at a dive bar, where we’d gorged on bacon-cheese tater twats and burgers, we all settled into the large hot tub on the second floor of the hotel with plastic glasses of wine.
“Oh yeah, that’s right. Rub mama’s tootsies,” Gianna groaned, holding her feet over one of the lower jets.
We talked and drank for a while, with Cruz getting out to refill our glasses twice from the bottles we’d left on the table. I tried not to stare at the droplets of water dripping down a perfect set of abs every time he rose.
I was feeling so relaxed and grateful as I glanced around at my friends, Artie and Nic across from me, Gianna on my right, and Cruz on my left.
“I just wanted to say thank you for coming this weekend, and I’m so sorry I wasted your time.”
“You didn’t waste our time,” Nicolette insisted. “Why would you say that?”
“Because you went above and beyond for me on all this wedding stuff, and then I called it off.”
Artie rolled his eyes. “Honey, we’re glad you broke up with Dwight. Nic and I never liked him.”
“Really? You never said anything.”
“We didn’t want to mess up our friendship by badmouthing your boyfriend,” Nicolette said quietly.
Artie added, “The few times we met him, we both thought he was a bit of a pompous douche.” He lightly splashed water at me. “Not to mention the sex stuff.”
“Artie!” I scolded, splashing him back.
“Ooh, what sex stuff?” Gianna asked. “Did he have a teeny wienie?”
I giggled and took a sip. “No, his wienie was… fine, I guess. And can we please talk about something besides my sex life?”
“Baby doll, that was no sex life. You had a better relationship with the shower head.”
“You can stop talking now,” I warned as everyone laughed.
“It wasn’t the actual peen. He just didn’t know how to use it,” Artie kindly informed everyone. “His motto was good guys finish first.”
Cruz smirked into his glass before taking a drink. “He looks like the type.”
“And what’s your motto, Cruz?” Artie asked sweetly, and I noticed I wasn’t the only one whose eyes kept drifting to the man beside me.
Cruz chuckled. “My motto is good girls finish first, and the right guy finishes at least third.”
Well then…
Artie fanned himself dramatically. “Good lawd! Why did this hot tub just get a thousand degrees hotter?”
“Cruu-uuz!” Gianna whined. “Now I miss Auburn.” She stood in her white bikini and reached for a towel. “I think I’ll go call him.”
“Make good choices,” Cruz called as she wrapped the towel around her and slipped into her sandals. She flipped him off.
“I don’t get it. Why would you come third?” Nicolette asked in a quiet voice before widening her eyes. “Ohhhh, are you talking about being with two women at once?”
Artie and I locked eyes, sharing a smile. Nic may be a brilliant biochemist, but she could be a little ditzy where sex was concerned.
“Honey,” Artie said patiently, bumping her shoulder with his, “he means he makes his woman come twice before he… you know…”
“Oh.” She looks Cruz up and down. “You can really do that? I thought men like that were a romance book myth.”
“Cruz Estrada… the man, the myth, the legend,” Artie said in a movie announcer voice that made us all crack up.
“I’m really glad you invited us,” Nicolette told me, polishing off the rest of the wine in her glass. “I needed to get away.”
“Work still driving you crazy?” I asked sympathetically, sinking into the water a little and finding a jet that shot the most delicious stream of water against my lower back.
“Yep,” she said on an exhale and then yawned.
“Welp, time to go,” Artie proclaimed, standing and pulling her up by the hand. “I don’t have the upper body strength to carry you upstairs, Nic.”
Bet Cruz could , I thought, admiring the breadth of his chest and shoulders from the corner of my eye.
“Probably right,” she said, rubbing at one eye. “Wine always makes me sleepy.”
“I’ll be up in a little bit,” I told them, my voice sluggish. “I just found a jet of water I may date now that I’m a single woman.”
“Lehra! You’re cheating on the shower head?” Artie exclaimed, pressing a dramatic hand over his chest.
“Haha, asshole. It’s hitting my back, not… down there .”
“I’ll stay with her and make sure she gets back to the room okay,” Cruz told him before twisting his head toward me with a slight frown. “Unless you wanted to be alone for a while?”
Closing my eyes, I tilted my head back against the edge of the tub. “No, stay and become a prune with me.”
“Bye, kids,” Artie sang before leading a yawning Nicolette from the pool room.
I sensed Cruz shifting beside me, and then he let out a low groan. “Mmmm, I think I just found one of those jets you were talking about.”
“Nice, huh?”
“Hell yeah. Feels soooo fucking good.”
Those words and the deep timbre of his voice sent my imagination on a fast train to inappropriate thoughts. Is that what he sounds like when he’s fucking? Can he really make a woman come twice? How big is his dick?
Also, can I see it?
Then it was like the Earth paused its rotation for a brief second, causing everything to shift, and I became very aware of Cruz, of my shoulder pressed against a large bicep. I mean, I knew he was seated right beside me, but suddenly the moist, chlorine-filled air seemed to sizzle around us.
He must have felt it too because I could feel his gaze on the side of my face. Opening my eyes, I found his face only inches from mine, and an unbidden sound whimpered up from my throat.
“You okay, Tink?” he asked, and I nodded. “You need anything?” Again, I nodded, inching my face closer. Cruz looped his arm around my shoulders until the side of my body was snug against his.
The only sound was the bubbling of the water as he brushed a damp piece of hair behind my ear before settling his hand on the side of my neck. Our eyes held like they had been bound together by invisible ropes as his thumb drew a slow circle around the hollow of my throat. The move was intimate, a lover’s touch, and I wanted more. So much more.
Cerulean eyes dropped to my lips and then made a slow inspection of every inch of my face before rising once again to mine. He must have found the answer to his unasked question there because he closed the distance between us, angling his mouth over mine.
My body came alive quicker than a flash of lightning, tingles alighting my skin. I’d never had such an instantaneous response to a kiss, and when his tongue made an unhurried trek across the seam of my lips, they parted like he was Ali Baba uttering open sesame .
Our tongues met, and I knew immediately that this man knew how to kiss a woman. He licked into my mouth, circling and caressing my tongue with strokes of warm velvet.
My body became heated, the water around me feeling suddenly tepid, though it had to be over a hundred degrees. This man was so sexy he could make a nun hike up her habit and spread her legs.
And speaking of spread legs, how did I end up straddling his lap? I wasn’t sure, but I damn well liked it. Our torsos were pressed tightly together, and Cruz’s hands slid up and down my thighs before settling on my hips. His every touch was confident and sure, the simple strokes of his thumbs against my hip bones promising that he had the ability to take me to heights I’d never before reached.
With a mere tightening of his fingers, he urged me to move, and I did. It took a second for my kiss-addled brain to figure out what I was feeling between my legs. Is that his friggin’ penis?
Another rotation of my hips told me that yes, yes, it was indeed. His cock was a thick, hard rod nestled against my pussy, and I couldn’t have stopped moving if I wanted to. Which I most assuredly did not.
One of Cruz’s hands slid up my spine and cupped the back of my head, holding me in place while he deepened our kiss. We devoured each other’s moans as I rocked against him, an orgasm already on the horizon.
I was so damned wet, I was surprised I didn’t overflow the hot tub as Cruz blazed a trail of kisses across my cheek and to my ear. “Goddamn, baby. Does the rest of you taste as sweet as those pretty lips?”
“Yes,” I managed to say as he tongued the lobe of my ear. “I taste like Skittles.”
His low, dark chuckle raised goosebumps all over my body. “My favorite candy. You gonna let me taste the rainbow, Tink?” he growled before biting down on my earlobe.
Sweet lord have mercy! If he hadn’t been holding me up, I would have flopped back into the water and drowned at the mere thought of that gorgeous mouth of his between my legs.
“You can taste anything you want,” I panted, gripping his shoulders when his mouth made its way down my neck and to my chest. His skin was like fire beneath my fingers, every muscle bunching as he guided me in a slow roll over his length with all the control of a puppet master.
His own hips lifted, grinding that long erection against my clit, and my body shuddered with my impending orgasm. I hadn’t come with anything other than some very handy vibrators in so long, but now I was right there. On the edge of beautiful bliss.
All I needed was…
As if reading my mind, Cruz’s mouth closed around my nipple through my bright-purple swim top, and I clutched his hair.
“Yes, Cruz. Please,” I begged, my voice a desperate sob.
“Use my cock, Tink. Come for me.” It wasn't a request but a sweet demand, and when his teeth sank into my nipple, I willingly complied.
Throwing back my head, I came. Really fucking hard.
“Yes, god yes! Cruz!”
My hips bucked wildly, and the man beneath me held on tight, his moans vibrating through my breast and shooting directly to my pussy. Water sloshed from the tub, and the pungent scent of chlorine combined with sex was like a sensual drug shot directly into my veins.
I’d never had an out-of-body experience before, but fuck me , it was like I was watching us from above, envisioning every movement of our bodies as I fell apart.
“Oh my god,” I croaked, my voice hoarse as I floated back to Earth on a lust-filled cloud. “You just blew my mind, Cruz.”
When I looked down at him, his smile had those wicked little dimples popping, and I pressed a hard kiss to his lips.
“I’m about to blow something else,” he said, “and I’d prefer not to do it in a public hot tub.”
That made me laugh, but it was cut short when the door to the pool room opened. Cruz instantly had me off his lap and seated about a foot away when an older gentleman with a gray mustache poked his head in.
“Hey, guys,” he said in a thick midwestern accent. “Pool area closed fifteen minutes ago.”
“Thanks, sir,” Cruz answered. “We were just leaving.”
I stifled my giggles until he was gone. “Do you think he knew what we were up to?”
Cruz groaned and shook his head. “I don’t know. Your face is all flushed, but maybe he didn’t get a good look.” He winced. “Sorry, that probably wasn’t a very smart thing to do. In public, you know?”
“I know,” I agreed, but I couldn’t bring myself to regret it. Not even a little bit.