Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Zoe
I grab my glass and take a sip, hoping he didn’t pick up on my actions.
He turns in his chair, fully facing me, and places his hand on my knee, motioning for me to turn to face him too. Heat rises up my body, which I try to hide by taking another sip and doing as he asked.
Once I’m facing him, he removes his hand. It takes everything in my power to not reach out to grab it and place it back on my leg.
“Why did we always hate each other so much?” he asks sincerely.
I can’t help but laugh under my breath, but I don’t respond.
“I’m being serious. Why have you always hated me?”
Being face-to-face with him like this is making it hard for me to think. The entire English language escapes me at this moment, and all I can do is shrug.
“That’s all you got?” He smirks. “No answer, just a shrug?”
“I guess I thought you hated me,” I finally blurt out.
“Me?” He places his hands on his chest dramatically. “You thought I hated you? What gave you that impression?”
Again, blank. My mind has never been so blank in my life. I try to think back to the office to remember all the times I wanted to wring his neck, but can’t remember exactly why a single time.
He takes my silence in, then turns back to the bar again. “And here I thought, it was because you hated me.” He sips his beer, sending questions swirling around in my head.
I place my hand on his arm, wanting to touch him in any way possible. “Why would you think that?”
With the beer bottle up to his lips, he looks down at my hand and then to me. I don’t budge though. I keep it there, feeling more alive than I have in a while.
He places the beer down on the bar. “At first, I thought we had playful banter, but then you got mad, and it seemed like that feeling never went away.”
“Playful banter?” I laugh. “Are you for real right now?”
He purses his lips and nods. “Yeah. It drives me crazy that you take everything so seriously.”
“Then why do you continue to bother me?”
His lips tilt up just slightly. “I didn’t know why until this trip, when you stopped fighting back. Once I hit that fight button in the car again, I understood why.”
I hold up my finger to him. “I do not have a fight button.”
“Oh, yes, you do. Don’t worry though. It’s cute. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed it until you acted differently for some reason.”
The expression on his face is doing things to my insides that need to stop.
I look forward, trying to gain my composure and drink my wine. “I don’t have a fight button,” I say under my breath.
“So then, it’s settled. We don’t actually hate each other.”
He tilts his beer sideways to cheers with my wine glass.
We sit in silence for a few moments before he slams his hands on the bar. “Let’s do shots in celebration.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.” He gives me a cheesy grin. “It’s nice, knowing we don’t actually hate each other. We should celebrate that fact.”
I hold up my finger to him. “I never said I didn’t hate you anymore.”
He nudges me with his leg playfully. “It’s okay; I won’t tell anyone. And we can go back to pretending we hate each other when we get back.”
I gasp. “I’m not pretending!”
He sits up straighter in his chair and turns to me with his hands out to the sides. “How can you hate this?”
“Hate this?” I motion up and down his body. “Or hate you?” I pick up my glass and take a sip of my wine, eyeing him while keeping my face forward.
He smirks, then holds up his hand to get the bartender’s attention. “Two shots of tequila, please.”
“Tequila?” I raise my eyebrows at him.
“Yep. If you liked me licking the whiskey bottle on the plane, then wait until you see me lick the salt off my hand.”
I laugh out loud. “You are too much!”
The bartender sets the shots down for us, as well as the shaker of salt and a few lime slices.
“Thanks, man.” David pays, then picks up a shot and slides it in front of me. “Ladies first.”
“Oh, now you’ll be a gentleman?” I tease.
He gasps. “I’m offended. I’m always a gentleman.”
I roll my eyes and pick up the saltshaker, licking the back of my hand just a little to wet the area to prepare for the salt.
“Oh, no, if you’re going to do this, I need you to get into it.” David motions to me.
I push him away from me. “I was just prepping the area. Chill!”
I shake some salt on my hand, then look at him, and as seductively as I can, I slowly move my tongue from the base of my thumb all the way up to my knuckles, starting way lower and ending way higher than needed.
Then I throw the shot back and chase it with the lime, sucking it after swallowing the amber liquid.
He doesn’t say a word, keeping his eyes fixated on my lips until I slam the glass down and slide his own drink toward him.
“Your turn.” I sit back to watch him the same way he did me.
To my surprise, he takes my hand and brings it to his mouth, pausing to silently ask for my permission. I sharply take in air, surprised he’d be so brazen, but then nod, giving him my approval to do as he wishes.
He opens his mouth, and my breath hitches even more. When he licks just a small area on the back of my hand, my chest tightens.
I watch intently while he shakes some salt onto my hand, then brings it back to his mouth. With his eyes locked on mine, he licks the salt, then keeps hold of my hand while he downs the shot.
After he sucks on the lime, he lets go of my hand and turns his attention back to the game.
We sit in silence as the alcohol races through our bodies, just as fast as my heartbeat.
I have never wanted a man as badly as I do him right now. Before, I knew I was falling for the man behind the screen. Now … I know I’m falling for the man I hated, the man who drove me insane every day, and the man who is sitting right next to me, but there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.
I don’t care if he sees me staring at him. For the life of me, I can’t take my eyes off of this man. I might really, truly, from the absolute depths of my soul, be in love with this man, but how do I tell him? How do I explain that I’m Jenelle?
I’m the one who kept you up all those nights. I’m the one who ghosted you because I was freaked out when I found out it was you.
His eyes are so glued to the TV that it’s almost like he’s trying not to move because then he’ll have to acknowledge that I’m sitting here next to him.
Right now, I’d allow him to have his complete way with me. I’ve never wanted to actually throw myself at a man, but I’ve never been so tempted in my life.
His mouth opens ever so slightly, just enough to let out a little breath. His chest rises and falls more than it should, which only makes my heart beat faster.
He has to be feeling this pull, this energy between us that is so strong that we might combust right here at the bar.
He picks up his bottle, bringing it to his lips, just as he tries to sneak a peek at me.
There’s no sneaking around here though. I’m locked in on him and only him.
Our eyes meet for a brief second while he takes a sip. Then he puts it back down on the bar and lets out an even bigger breath.
“Fuck it,” I hear him whisper before he abruptly grabs my hand and leads me out of the bar toward the elevator.
I don’t say a word. It’s not physically possible for me to speak right now. Words completely escape me as I follow him while my insides scream for both joy and relief that something is actually going to happen between us.
In the elevator, the air is thick, making it hard for me to breathe. He’s still got ahold of my hand, but he’s not said a word or looked at me in any way.
Now it’s my turn to sneak a peek at him.
I swear my knees buckle at the sight when I see the way his jaw tics and how his eyes are glued to the numbers as they climb to our floor.
He looks like a man on a mission, and knowing I’m going to benefit from said mission makes my insides tight and my panties wet.
The ding signaling our floor saves us both from the tension we’re feeling. Thankfully, he’s quick to lead me straight to his room. He opens the door, not waiting for me to walk in first. Instead, he walks through, holding my hand tighter to make sure I follow him.
Once we’re alone and the door is closed, he turns to face me and pushes me against the wall.
A whisper is seemingly all he can get out as he stares directly into my eyes. “Please tell me you want me, that you want this just as bad as I do right now.”
I still can’t speak. I try, but it seems like me and the English language are not friends right now, so all I do is nod.
“Oh, thank God.”
He rushes in and kisses me for the first time. Fireworks explode all around us even though we’re in a small hotel room. I don’t hear them, but I feel every launch and every explosion, like the show I’m watching is building up to the biggest finale I’ve ever seen.
When he reaches down to hold me tighter, I leap up, wrapping my legs around his waist and having no doubt that he’ll catch me with ease.
Our lips tangle while he walks me to his bed, slowly lowering me down. His mouth moves from my neck to my shoulder and down my stomach, where he lifts the top I’m wearing so he can run kisses along my bare skin.
“David,” I’m finally able to breathe out while arching my back, needing more of him right fucking now.
“My name has never sounded so sexy,” he says, making his way back up to my lips and taking everything he wants from me.
“Please,” I whisper, opening my legs a little wider and pulling him toward me.
“Greedy little thing, aren’t you?” he teases, sliding his way back down my body until he’s at my jeans.
“Oh, so now you wear jeans?” he jokes, unbuttoning them, then yanking them down and off my body along with my shoes then his.
He sits up, reaching behind himself to remove his shirt. For the first time, I get to see David in the natural form, and I’m telling you, it only grows my desire tenfold with his lean muscles and manly chest.
He unbuckles his belt, then his button and zipper while keeping his eyes locked with mine. I can’t help but bite my lip, afraid if I don’t, I might drool all over myself.
When his head drops to his chest with a huff, panic washes over me.
I reach for him. “What?”
“Please tell me you have a condom,” he says, so hopeful that it breaks my heart. He lets out a slight laugh. “This is not what I expected while on this trip, and I’m not the kind of guy who just carries one in his wallet.”
I inhale a deep breath, then have my own fuck it moment.
I move up onto my knees so we’re right next to each other. Brazenly, I pull my shirt up and toss it to the side. Now it’s my turn to keep his eyes glued to me while I reach around to unhook my bra and throw it to the floor.
Pushing my body up against his, I whisper, “I’m on birth control, and I swear I don’t normally do this, but I want you so bad right now that I don’t care.”
His lips crash to mine, and we’re back lying on the bed, both of us scrambling to get his pants off as well as my panties.
“I haven’t been with anyone since my fiancée,” he admits.
“I trust you. Now please get inside me,” I beg.
“Yes, ma’am,” he teases, and with one push, he does as I wish.
We both announce the relief it brings as we chase the high that’s been mounting between us this entire trip. It’s not slow, it’s not soft, it’s pure animal fucking, and I swear it’s the most intense feeling I’ve ever experienced.
“Oh my God!” I scream out, and he flips us over so I’m on top of him.
“No, you don’t. You’re not going to come yet. We’ve just begun.”
I lean up with my hands on his chest and start moving my hips.
I can’t believe how amazing he feels inside me.
The moan that releases from my lips is something I didn’t know was possible.
When I drop my head back, getting him in another angle, I gasp, completely out of control from how good he feels.
“That’s it,” he says as he grabs my hips, holding me there while he pushes himself deeper inside me. “That’s my girl.”
Hearing him call me that does some crazy things inside me, and I instantly drop to his chest. If I thought I was going to get a moment to get my wits about me, I was completely wrong.
David grabs my hips, keeping me steady as he pounds upward in a fast motion, causing me to scream, not able to hold any ounce of my pleasure back.
“I—ah—I—it’s too intense. I can’t …” I’m speaking gibberish, but it’s all I can get out.
“Yes, you can. Take all of me, baby. I’ve wanted you so fucking bad,” he grunts out.
I lean up to kiss his lips, and it’s the last push I need to come all over him, squeezing him so hard that I can’t even hold myself up anymore.
“Yes. Fuck. That’s so fucking hot. I’m going to—” He doesn’t finish that statement as he finds his own release, and slows his pace, moving much calmer in and out of me.
I’m a puddle of goo, lying on top of him with my head on his chest and zero strength to do anything else.
“Come here.” He motions for my face, and when he kisses me, I swear I melt into oblivion.
The way our mouths meet and our tongues dance is pure art. The Mona Lisa has nothing on what we just created between the two of us, and I don’t ever want to leave his arms again.