Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Nick
I fucked up. Not just a little bit. A full-blown fuck-up that I wasn’t going to be able to fix.
But damn it, what the hell was I supposed to do?
I followed Lake through the corridor and took a separate elevator since she had already made it up.
I didn’t know how I was going to make this better. If I could make this better. I had already spent that day trying to atone for me being an asshole while thinking about how much better she was than me. And it had all gone to hell.
All because I couldn’t think. Someone had touched her. Had threatened to hurt her.
Of course, I was going to do something about it.
I stepped off the elevator and made my way to the door, opening it with a harsh click, knowing that if I didn’t calm down I would just make things worse.
“Are you serious right now?” Lake asked as she whirled on me.
I stiffened, the door closing behind me.
“I’m sorry for making a scene. But he touched you.”
I hadn’t meant to practically shout the words, but there was no going back from them.
“You didn’t need to hit him!”
She tossed her purse on the couch, the same place that I was sleeping this weekend because I didn’t have my own fucking bed.
“Yes the fuck I did. I’m not some candy-ass. I know words work well in some cases, and I fucking use them if I have to. But that man didn’t care. And you know if you reported him, nothing would happen. From the way that he acts, nothing has ever happened. You know it .”
I hadn’t meant to emphasize the last words, and when she paled, the heat pulled out of me. I moved forward, hands outstretched.
“Fuck. I’m sorry, Lake.”
We both knew what I was sorry for this time. For Zach. Not for that asshole in the corridor that we wouldn’t think about again.
“No, no,” she said, hands outstretched this time, though neither one of us was touching the other.
“Lake.”
“I’m sorry for bringing you here and acting as if I belong here, too. Because I don’t. I’m the kid who didn’t feel like a Montgomery forever, and then when I finally did, I went and did a different job than anyone else and feel left out. I’m going to come here and be the odd woman out. Because it’s what I do. I’m an idiot and didn’t think about the fact that Ned was prowling the corridors. And I didn’t push back. I didn’t fight for myself. That’s what’s wrong here. Not you hitting him. Because, damn, it’s fine. It’s what I should have done. And that’s what I’m pissed off at.”
I was floored and tried to get through exactly what she just said because there was so much wrong with it I could barely focus.
“What the hell? What the hell is wrong with you?”
She opened her mouth to speak, and I realized I probably could have said that better.
“No. You have always been the center. The center of the Montgomerys, everything. You are the center. At least the center of me.”
She looked at me, slack-jawed, and I backpedaled. “Fuck. I didn’t mean that.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s fine. You belong here. You belong with the family, you belong everywhere. I don’t know why you’re having such self-doubt, and if it’s because of that asshole, then I want to find him and beat the hell out of him. But damn it, Lake. You make it hard to think. You’ve always made it hard to think. And that’s the damn problem.”
I didn’t realize we were standing so close until I could feel the heat of her, and my head was bent just slightly. And when she looked up at me, mouth parted, I did the stupidest thing possible.
I leaned down, crushed my lips to hers, just a bare taste, a need, a want, and when I pulled away, I cursed again.
“Fuck. That was a mistake.”
My chest heaved as I stared at her, as every moment of this past weekend, hell, of these past months where I had been near her—a slight touch, a soft caress, a glare, a growl—went through my mind. Everything that had happened between us that I had purposely ignored hit me for the first time, the second time, every time.
And I couldn’t focus.
“A mistake? No, for the first time,” she whispered, before she lowered her head, took a deep breath. “For the first time it wasn’t a mistake.”
I blinked at her, frowning. “What the hell are you talking about, Lake?”
“Why can’t this just be my own choice? Why can’t I choose you in this moment? Why does it have to be complicated? Why can’t we just have tonight without everybody taking it away and freaking out? Because I see the way you watch me.”
“Lake.”
“It’s the same way that I watch you. Why are we acting like this? Why are we freaking out and you wanting to run away because you kissed me? Just like I ran away because you stood up for me. Why can’t we just have this moment?”
“Are you talking about what I think you’re talking about right now?”
My hands were on her shoulders, gently caressing her soft skin before I even realized it. Because damn it, I had thought of this moment. Far too many times over the past years.
I had done my best not to think of her. Not to think of this, and yet how could I not? When she was so damn beautiful that she took my breath away, and it was hard to think, hard to breathe. She didn’t seem to want to pull away in this moment. Didn’t seem to want to run away from me.
“You have to be sure, Lake.”
“I’m sure in most of my life. I make decisions and I stand by them, and I believe in them. And yet for the entire time I’ve known you I’ve done my best not to think of you. We fight so much. Do you ever wonder why?”
I snorted, gently brushing my fingers along her cheek. She leaned into it, and I swallowed hard.
“I know why. Because it’s easier to fight than to do anything else.”
“This won’t be a mistake. Because we won’t let it.”
And I had to hope to hell that was the truth.
I lowered my head and brushed my lips against hers, and I was lost.
I slid my fingers along her shoulders again and she moaned into me. This was stupid. Beyond idiotic, but I didn’t care right then. I wanted more. To do this again and to not stop.
We would think about what this meant later. If it meant anything. But right then and there, if this was what she wanted, then I would let myself ignore the reasons we shouldn’t and do what I wanted as well.
“Nick,” she whispered as I slid my lips down her jaw over her neck.
I knew her neck was sensitive, and not just in the way she moaned. But from the way she had stiffened along my touch when I had put her necklace on, and I swallowed hard.
“Is this okay?” I asked.
“Yes. I trust you, Nick.” She looked up at me, wide-eyed and serious, and I nodded.
“Good.” I kissed her again, just that one phrase, trust echoing within me.
“If you’re sure,” I whispered again before I slowly undid the clasp on her necklace, my fingers gently brushing her skin. She shivered, as if the touch was good for her, and I took that as a win. We continued to kiss, both of us knowing this was insane. Or at least that’s what I figured. For all I knew this was what she wanted, what she had been thinking of forever. Then again, this was what I had been thinking of. Maybe I wasn’t losing my mind. Maybe this was okay.
She groaned against me, and then we slowly walked towards the bedroom.
I grinned at the king-size bed, then looked down at her as she raised a brow.
“What’s so funny?” she asked, looking like the Lake that I knew. This was all new and scary and different, and yet, some things were the same. Like this being Lake.
I needed to get out of my head. I was good at this. At sex and seduction. I needed to remember that.
“Just thinking about the fact that this might be the first time I actually get to sleep in this bed.”
She shoved at my shoulder gently and rolled her eyes.
“You could have done so this whole time.”
I raised a brow. “How would I have when I would have wanted to wake up in the middle of the night and see how wet you were. To press myself against you, to rock along your body, just so you could see how hard I was every time you are around.”
Her eyes widened. “Seriously?”
I laughed, kissed her lips, then her shoulder, then her neck. “Do you know how hard it is to hide morning wood? And it’s not just morning. You show up in those flowy pants and that top that makes your breasts look perky, and my cock presses against my jeans. I was here to be your friend, to be your stand-in so people didn’t ask questions, and it was all I could do not to get a hard-on every time you walked into a room.”
That was probably too honest. Too bare. But it wasn’t like I could take back the words now.
Her eyes widened, then she slowly undid my tie, then the buttons of my shirt. I watched her work, taking her sweet time because I knew as soon as this moment ended, the bubble would burst and there’d be no going back to normal.
Not that I knew what normal was anyway.
“I’ve thought about you, too, you know. Even when I shouldn’t. Maybe that’s a problem. But one we can rectify right now.”
I took off my shirt, let it drop to the floor. And as soon as my hands were at my belt, she stepped back and undid the ties on the sides of her dress. I had no idea that it had only been staying up by those single ties, or I would have had a problem for the entire evening thinking about her. Because as soon as she shifted her hips slightly, the dress fell to her feet, pooling on the floor.
I groaned at the sight of her in a tiny bra with no straps, barely any lace at all, and an even tinier set of panties.
“You’re going to kill me.”
“I had to worry about lines under this dress. But I couldn’t go naked with you around. At least naked under this dress. When you touched my neck earlier? When you put on this necklace, my breath caught, and it was hard for me to even breathe. And my panties got wet just thinking of it.”
I groaned.
“We are insane.”
“Maybe. But at least we can be insane together right now.”
“Deal.” And then my mouth was on hers again, and my hands were sliding through her hair. I couldn’t be rough, not with Lake. Not with who she had been and what we were together. Because she was my friend, and I knew she had been through hell. And that’s when I froze.
“What?” she asked, looking up at me.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You’re not going to hurt me.”
I shook my head. “Lake. Is this the first time since…” I asked, breaking the moment.
“Oh, Nick.” She shook her head. “Yes, but I’m okay. He didn’t hurt me like that. And you’re not going to either. I promise. I want this. And if I don’t for any reason, if something changes, I’ll let you know, and I trust you with everything that I have. I trust you to stop if I need to stop. So kiss me, okay? I don’t want to be the wounded bird that I think you see when you look at me sometimes. I want to be the Lake that makes you laugh. I want to be the Lake that makes you come.”
I groaned. “Okay then.” I kissed her again, my hands wrapping around her.
I gently laid her on the bed, hovering over her after I pulled off my pants. I still wore my boxer briefs, not wanting to startle her too much. She writhed on the bed, still in her bra and panties, so I hovered over her, pressing a kiss to her collarbone, in between her breasts over her bra.
“Nick.”
“Let me look at you. Taste you. You make it hard to want anything else.”
She groaned as I slowly pulled down the cup of her bra, exposing her pale pink nipple. I blew cool air over it and it pebbled, looking sexy as fuck. And when I leaned down to suck her nipple into my mouth, she arched into me.
“Nick.”
“So beautiful. Soft.” I did the same thing to her other breast, and both of us groaned, her taste a sweet sin that was never going to forget.
She moved gently, arching her back so she could undo the clasp of her bra, and I tossed it to the floor, looking down at her in her goddess form.
“You’re so fucking beautiful.”
“You’re making it hard to breathe.”
I grinned, then went back down to play with her breasts, kneading and sucking until she was writhing under me, my thigh between her legs as she rode me. I could feel her heat and wetness through her panties, so when I slid my hand down between her legs, she sucked in a breath and froze.
I did the same, looking down at her. “Okay?”
She nodded. “I’m okay. I just didn’t realize I was already on a trigger.”
I laughed. “Well then. Let’s see what I can do.”
I met that honey-brown gaze of hers and slowly slid my hand underneath her panties, my middle finger sliding over her clit.
She hummed, her mouth parting as I gently rubbed small circles over her, once, twice, her breaths coming in sweet pants as I slowly slid my fingers over her wetness, spreading her folds. She was small, tight, and when I gently inserted one finger, she clamped around me, her whole body rolling in a moan.
So close. So close. I gently prodded her entrance, inserting another finger, watching the way her entire body flushed. And when I slid my thumb over her clit, rocking to the motion as I fingered her, she came.
The sweet ecstasy of sensation nearly made me come in my briefs.
She rolled her hips, riding my hand, when she finally came down, I grinned, looking down at her.
“Beautiful.”
And then she was reaching for me, sliding her hand underneath the band of my boxer briefs, taking me in hand.
I groaned and she smiled up at me, fisting me.
“Be careful. You do that too much, we’re not going to have much fun after.”
“I think I can handle that.” She sat up as I kneeled over her and kissed me.
I deepened the kiss, wrapping my arm around her, as she worked me in her hand, her fist tightening with each movement.
She was so damn sexy it was hard to breathe, but it didn’t matter. This was Lake. My Lake. If only for a moment. And it might be a mistake. Such a big mistake that it would change everything but I didn’t care in that moment. It was as if we had been waiting for this for eons, and finally I was letting those wet dreams of mine, those errant thoughts that I wouldn’t give any consideration to previously, come forward.
It didn’t matter that we would walk away in the morning and never talk about this again. Because with her holding me in that small hand of hers, it was all I could do not to keep thrusting, and to want more.
“Nick. I don’t have a condom,” she said after a moment, and she stilled her hand on my dick, my hand between her legs.
I cursed under my breath, then kissed her hard on the mouth. “I’ve got one in my bag.”
She narrowed her gaze at me, and I laughed outright.
“First, I always have one in my bag, because you never know. Second, don’t get mad; without it, we wouldn’t be continuing.”
“Go get it. And I’m going to have to add condoms to my bag for the future.”
I growled at her, kissed her hard, then practically ran to my bag for a condom.
My dick bobbed against my stomach, and I shucked off my boxer briefs, and ran back. I caught the panties as she threw them at me, rolled my eyes, and threw them over my shoulder before I came back and practically pounced on top of her.
She laughed with me, as I wondered how I could laugh in this situation.
I was about to make love with Lake fucking Montgomery. How the hell had that happened? And why the hell did this seem like exactly what we should be doing?
I rolled the condom over my length before I positioned myself between her legs.
“Tell me when to stop.”
“I don’t think I’m going to do that,” she whispered, and I kissed her hard, before I sank deep inside her. Her pussy clenched along my cock, tight and hot and wet.
She moaned against me, wrapping her legs around my waist, before I was finally fully seated, and we both shook, our bodies sweat-slick.
“Dear God. I can’t, I’m so full. How can…”
I smiled against her lips, kissed her again.
“Ready for me to move?”
“I think I’m ready to come right now,” she whispered, so I kissed her again, and moved.
She did indeed come around my cock, her orgasm rolling to the point that I nearly came, and I rocked my hips, slowly working in and out of her. I wouldn’t go fast, wouldn’t go hard, just slowly so I could feel her. So I could stretch out this moment because I knew there wouldn’t be another. Not after now. Not after everything had changed.
When she looked up at me, her eyes wide, I kissed her again and nodded.
“It’s okay, Lake. I’m here.”
I wiped away her tears, because I knew they weren’t for me, but for her. At least I had to hope. And when she held me, her hands sliding down my back, I came, shaking, as I crushed my mouth to hers, afraid I’d say something wrong. Afraid I’d say something at all.
Because I had just done the one thing I had been thinking about for years.
The one thing I had always known I couldn’t.
I had just slept with my friend, my sometimes enemy, and the one woman who had been off limits for most of my life.
And there was no going back.