Chapter 30
ALEX
Teeth | 5 Seconds of Summer
‘You’re a dream.’ Alex was pretty damn close to babbling , utterly wrecked by the exercise he had suggested, desperate for her to see her body the way he did. The idea of handcuffing her and worshipping her had been forming since he’d arrived home on Thursday night and ordered the pretty purple cuffs, praying she’d let him use them for this purpose as he paid for next-day delivery. If not, he’d accept her just using them on him. But in the moment, without them, the mirror had been a stroke of genius—one that had left him weak. There was nothing that affected him more than exploring her body, coaxing out the little sounds he loved so much. She wasn’t typically loud, and he could tell she tried to keep herself reined in, not showing her hand too much. It made each noise she couldn’t control that much more satisfying.
After tossing Sarah on the bed, he crawled to cover her body with his own.
‘Is this okay?’ he asked, arms keeping him just above her. ‘It’s safer than you on top with—’ He cocked his head to the left. Because she almost always braced herself on his chest, one hand resting where his new tattoo sat, probably assuming his racing heart was due to physical exertion rather than her proximity.
Sarah nodded, still breathing heavily as she slid one hand around his waist, the other squeezing at his shoulder. Everywhere she touched was vibrating with pleasure.
‘I know it’s not your favourite’—he nudged her nose with his—‘but I’ll make it good. I promise.’
‘You always do,’ she whispered, hand trailing up his neck and into his hair. Her fingernails raking against his scalp were heavenly. ‘And I’ve just had the orgasm to end all orgasms, so if I don’t come again for the next week, I’ll probably be okay.’
‘Like hell am I going to let you not come for a week,’ Alex grumbled, reaching into his bedside drawer for a condom. Especially since they were a week away from the wedding. A week away from the ending she’d put on their arrangement, unless he convinced her to change her mind.
Then he was sinking into her, his world narrowing to the place where he moved slowly in and out of her.
A small whimper drew his attention back to Sarah’s face, where a swipe of his thumb had her releasing her lower lip from between her teeth.
‘Hey,’ he whispered, ‘that’s my job.’
When he drew her lip between his, teeth scraping lightly over the soft, sensitive skin, Sarah loosed a light, breathless giggle into his mouth, and his world stopped revolving around the sun, stopped bowing to the gravitational forces of the moon, and became a slave to that sound.
But after a minute, she frowned. ‘Aleksander… This isn’t— This isn’t right.’
He froze. Then, when he was halfway to pulling out, she dug her heels into his thighs, halting his exit.
‘No. I want it. I need it. This just isn’t us. You can stop being careful’—she tightened her hand in his hair, and he felt sparks flicker down his body—‘with me.’
This woman was going to be the death of him.
‘I want to go slow,’ he breathed into her skin, ‘but I don’t have to be gentle.’
He gave one deep, hard thrust, and she gasped when his hip bone hit perfectly between her legs.
‘I love that about us,’ he said, dropping his forehead to hers, enjoying the puff of breath as she registered the word he’d used. It couldn’t be a surprise to her. Not with the way he looked at her, touched her, kissed her. She had to know this went so far beyond sex for him.
‘I l—’ She took a shaky breath. ‘I like it too.’
Like.
That was okay. He could wait for her to catch up. It wasn’t her fault he’d been at the finish line for weeks already.
Each time he bottomed out, it brought another gasp from her, getting louder when she started lifting her body, meeting him thrust for thrust.
It was raw and carnal and devastatingly intimate, their eyes locked centimetres apart and their breathing synced.
‘You’re perfect,’ Alex murmured, weaving his fingers through her hair again. It increased the strain on his body, one arm holding him just away from crushing her, and he didn’t care one bit. What was all the strength training for if he couldn’t use it like this? ‘I want you to get one more. What do you need?’
‘I don’t need— Alex!’ She gasped as he rocked backwards and scraped his teeth over a nipple.
He wondered if she could feel his whole body throbbing at her outburst. It wasn’t hearing that name from her. Not really. It was knowing that she had to be completely losing control to forego using the name she put so much effort into teasing him with.
‘I don’t need another one,’ she whimpered, when he let her breathe again.
‘Maybe I do.’ His thumb curled against her throat, pressing into her pulse point, which was fluttering wildly. ‘Maybe I need to get you there again.’
‘Why?’ She grabbed the sheet next to her stomach, and he slid his hand out of her hair to curl his fingers over hers.
‘Just do.’ I need you to feel good. And I need to know I did it. ‘Please, Princess.’ He’d never begged in bed before, not even when she’d had him in handcuffs.
‘Touch me then,’ she whispered, moving their joined hands to the space where their hips met.
Within minutes she was scratching at his back, moaning his name, clenching around him, and the combination had him following her over the edge.
They lay there for a few minutes after, laboured breaths syncing in the moonlight. When Sarah disappeared into the bathroom, Alex padded off to the kitchen to pour a glass of water for her, taking a moment to drink his own as he willed his heart to stop racing.
Celine was vigorously attacking a chew toy, swiftly abandoned when Alex knelt to scratch behind her ears. ‘Are you going to look after her for me?’ he asked. Her response was a gentle whine. ‘Good girl. Come on.’
Sarah was under the covers when he got back, and finished half the glass of water he offered in two gulps. ‘Where are you going?’ she asked, voice slightly hoarse, when he stepped towards the door.
‘I told you I’d sleep in my office,’ Alex said. ‘Don’t worry, Princess; Celine will keep you safe.’
‘And if I want you to stay?’ Her eyes were soft, half fluttering shut already.
It had been a long time since he had slept—actually slept—with someone. He didn’t, as a rule, though there’d been one or two women after Leah who had overstayed their welcome. But the idea of sharing his bed with Sarah felt nothing short of luxurious.
So he climbed under the covers and pulled her into his arms. Celine leapt onto the bed, curling up beside Sarah. He’d think her a traitor, if her devotion didn’t so neatly mirror his. When Sarah had stopped wriggling, he whispered, for the second time that night, ‘Drunk confession?’
‘Yeah?’ Her voice was barely there, then replaced almost instantly with deep, even breaths.
Alex sighed into her hair and tightened his arms around her sleeping body. ‘I wish we hadn’t put an expiry date on this.’
***
When Alex woke up, the part of him that wanted to stay wrapped up in Sarah warred with the part of him desperate to show her how good their lives could be together.
He didn’t know how he was supposed to give this up in a week. The sex, sure, but… her . Her laugh and her eyes and the way she had absolutely zero time for his bullshit. The way he felt like a whole person around her, instead of a fragile shell padding itself with charm and nonchalance.
But maybe, if he could be good enough, appealing enough, he could convince her to stay. In his bed, with him holding her close on one side and his dog sprawled on her other. He’d melted when Celine jumped onto the bed moments before Sarah passed out, and her hand had slid across Celine’s side, heavy with tiredness.
With one more kiss to Sarah’s hair, wild across his pillows, Alex slid out of bed, pulled on a pair of joggers, and walked downstairs to start his coffee machine and mix a batch of pancakes.
Alex didn’t hear her quiet footsteps coming down the stairs, but even the bare traces of perfume still clinging to her filled his nose when she entered the kitchen.
Faint surprise registered on her face as he looked up at her. She was wearing a white t-shirt, the one he’d handed to her before heading to the shower. Before she’d fallen asleep surrounded by him instead. The sight landed only marginally below the experience of seeing her in nothing.
‘You’re wearing glasses,’ she said, but her voice sounded off. Slightly hollow and distant.
‘I haven’t put my contacts in yet.’ Even at home, he rarely wore the bulky black frames, instead stumbling blurry-eyed into the bathroom first thing in the morning to find his lenses.
‘And your hair is…curly.’
Alex let himself scratch the back of his head again. ‘Yeah, I, uh’—he laughed sheepishly—‘I got a bit distracted from my normal post-shower routine.’ The miracle serum his hairdresser swore by smoothed his natural curls into gentle waves when he ran it through damp hair.
No one saw him like this. He barely saw himself like this. But he didn’t mind it with her.
‘C’mere, Princess.’ He stretched out his hand. ‘Let me say good morning.’
Something was wrong. In the cosy domestic setting he’d imagined, Sarah was perched on the counter while he stood between her knees and fed her fresh berries—the ones he’d asked Maggie to add to her grocery list in case this very scenario occurred.
‘I should get going, actually.’ She shifted her weight between her legs.
And years of training came in handy as Alex kept his face very, very still, hiding any trace of the disappointment threatening to break through. ‘I was making breakfast.’
Sarah’s eyes flicked to the stove, softening in a way that wouldn’t have been noticeable if Alex wasn’t tuned into each of her micro-expressions.
‘I thought you couldn’t cook.’
Her voice was too quiet, and Alex thought back to her words the night before.
This isn’t us.
The way they were speaking now, so soft and careful, with no bite or flirty undercurrent? This wasn’t them.
‘I don’t cook. Never said I can’t.’ He flipped a pancake to demonstrate his point, chewing on the inside of the cheek facing away from her. Though he wasn’t sure why he was still bothering if she wasn’t staying. What the hell had gone wrong between her fingers clawing at every part of him she could reach, eyes blazing, and now?
Pancake cooked on both sides, he slid it onto a plate and switched off the stove. ‘Give me a minute to put on a shirt, and I’ll take you home.’
‘I’ll get the train,’ she said quickly. ‘But could I…could I borrow this?’ She plucked at the white sleeve.
Alex took a step closer to the kitchen island so he could see beyond it. She was wearing his shirt, yes, but over her dress from the night before. It doused the flame inside him that had ignited at seeing her in his clothes.
‘If you’re trying to avoid the walk of shame look, I’m not sure it’s helping. Let me drive you.’
‘That’s— I’m not—’ She took a deep breath. ‘Last night was…great. But I really need to go. Party prep, you know?’
Great.
Not perfect or mind-altering. He would have settled for amazing.
But great.
The same way she’d described their anonymous fucking on a bathroom sink.
Alex flicked a burner back on, ready to cook bacon he wouldn’t eat. ‘Yeah. I’ll see you at the afterparty tonight?’ He hated that his voice broke on the last word, turning it into a question.
They only had a week left. And if the way she was acting just then was any indicator, he didn’t have a hope in hell of convincing her to keep going once those seven days were up.