Chapter 24
24
AMELIA
J ared’s kiss was relentless, like he could consume me and still want more.
I should have pushed him away, shoved him out the door and out of my life.
I told myself it was to get closure, that I’d do this once, just to get it out of my system, and then end things.
I knew it was never really going to go anywhere.
It was just going to leave me with a broken heart.
But when he angled his head and deepened the kiss, my resolve slipped through my fingers like water.
I needed the distraction.
I wanted to feel good and forget real life for just a little while.
All my troubles would still be there when I came up for air.
For now, I needed him.
He trailed kisses down my neck, his hands moving over my body, over clothes I’d put on in a hurry this morning when I just had to get to work.
He pushed up my shirt, impatient with buttons and snaps and even zippers.
Before I even realized what happened, my shirt was off and his mouth hovered over the swell of my breasts.
He reached for my bra clasp and quickly unhooked it.
My breasts sprang free.
Jared immediately attacked them with tongue and teeth, filling my body with fire.
“Fuck,” Jared muttered against my skin.
They would never suspect this, I thought.
Everyone outside the door had probably invented their own theories as to why Jared stormed in here, but this wasn’t one of them.
I kind of loved that.
And hated it too. It was insane.
I should not be doing this.
My jaw dropped as Jared backed off and swept a hand over the table behind him, knocking binders to the floor.
He lifted me onto the cleared space, pushing my skirt up my thighs.
His eyes were dark with need as he looked at me.
“You want this?” he asked.
It was more of a demand than a question.
I nodded, breathless with anticipation and desire.
I didn’t trust myself to speak.
He made a low noise that might have been satisfaction or impatience or both.
Then he kissed me again, grabbing my hips to pull me forward to the edge of the table while his mouth claimed mine.
He leaned into me—one knee between my thighs—and bit down lightly on my bottom lip.
I gasped, my mouth dropping open.
He took the opportunity to plunge his tongue into my mouth, kissing me hard like his whole life depended on it.
I was dizzy—heat throbbing through me so intensely that I couldn’t tell where my heartbeat stopped and his began.
One by one, all those arguments for why we shouldn’t do this burned away until there was just us.
Jared’s hand slipped between my legs, brushing over lace panties now soaked through with need.
“More,” I gasped against his mouth as his fingers stroked me through the fabric.
He slowed his touch on purpose then, making it tantalizingly light and just enough to drive me crazy.
I wanted more. Needed it.
I needed him and this and all the distraction he gave me.
My hips bucked against his hand with a mind of their own.
There wasn’t a shy bone in my body as I grabbed his shoulders and dug my nails in through his shirt.
“Damn, Amelia,” he said, his voice a low growl.
With one fast motion, he slid my panties down and off, tossing them aside without a care.
Cool air hit my skin for half a second before his thumb pressed hard against my clit and sent a wave of heat crashing through me.
My entire body arched, mouth open around an unrestrained moan.
He knew exactly how to touch me.
“How’s that?” he asked.
“Yes.” That was all I could manage to get out as he dipped lower and then thrust two fingers inside me—filling me and stretching me until I had nothing left to hold onto but him.
I could barely breathe.
It was nothing but sensation, overwhelming and perfect.
“Is this what you want?”
I nodded too frantically for it to look anything but desperate, but I didn’t care.
The friction of his fingers and thumb was pushing me impossibly close to the edge.
And then he slowed down.
I groaned, digging my fingers in and attacking his mouth with my own.
He brought his fingers up to his mouth, tasting me as he watched my expression with dark delight.
“You’re needy today,” he said.
“I get it. You need more.”
“Yes,” I moaned.
Suddenly, he dropped to his knees in front of me.
I had no time to react.
I didn’t get to tell him we shouldn’t.
He just did it.
Jared buried his face between my thighs, his tongue hot and relentless against me.
The sensation was excruciatingly good, a little overwhelming.
I was lost in it, lost in him.
I couldn’t believe we were doing this, not here, not now, but the idea of stopping seemed ludicrous.
He’d started with my clit, licking away the ache with slow precision that left me squirming and trying to find control that was just out of reach.
He knew how to work up my anticipation, like he had all the time in the world to tease me to insanity before pushing me over the edge.
I tried to stay quiet—someone could walk by at any time—but he was making it so damn hard.
It was wet and sloppy and exactly what I needed.
His tongue moved lower.
He slid it over me, a slow stroke that pushed me right up to the edge.
I gasped again, reaching for anything to hold on to.
“Oh god,” I heard myself say.
Jared chuckled. The deep vibration shot right through me, leaving nothing but want in its wake.
His grip tightened on my hips, holding me close against his mouth as he devoured me shamelessly.
Like he had a point to prove.
He licked broad stripes up my slit and then circled around my clit until I shifted under him, desperate for more friction than he would give me.
He’d slow down and then speed up again when he felt me tense like it was nothing but a game.
“Please,” I begged, as breathless as it was pathetic.
When Jared’s lips sealed around my clit, it was over.
I went crashing over that peak, pulsing around his tongue and fingers and losing myself to the sweet ecstasy.
He didn’t let up for a second.
He held me there unbearably long until I came all over again—shaking and gasping and still clinging to him like I’d been damn near drowning.
And only then did he rise to his feet.
“Look at you,” Jared said with a savage grin.
He brushed his mouth against mine so I could taste myself on him, possessive as hell while he did it.
I fumbled with his belt, jerking and tugging until he took over the job.
He was just as frantic.
I reached for his cock pulling it out of his briefs in sheer desperation.
I wanted to feel him inside me.
His silky skin wrapped around the steel rod sent my blood racing.
My fingers curled around him as I stroked up and down, loving the way he fit perfectly in my grip.
Jared groaned, hungry and impatient, and it sent a shiver straight through me.
“Fuck,” he muttered again.
He grabbed my wrist then—no more finesse, no more teasing—and pushed me back onto the table so fast that everything spun for a second.
He pulled my hips up and stepped between my legs.
He lifted one of them and hooked it over his shoulder while his eyes locked on mine.
The need in them was insane.
Insatiable and possessive.
Then he thrust deep inside me all at once, pushing into me hard enough to leave us both gasping.
Jared growled as he pulled halfway out before driving right back in.
The pace was ruthless and perfect and everything I needed it to be.
With each thrust, he pulled sounds out of me that would have been embarrassing if I wasn’t entirely beyond caring who heard us through the closed door by then.
He reached down between us to touch me while he fucked me, his thumb circling again until I cried out from the sweet pleasure of it all.
His cock stretched me in the most delicious way.
He worked me relentlessly from the outside while filling me.
Everything tightened unbearably around him.
I was shaking with how fucking good it felt.
Every thrust pushed breathless moans from my throat until I didn’t know which of us sounded more desperate for release.
We were both right there, right on the edge together.
“Come for me, Amelia,” he demanded.
I did—shattering apart with a raw and overwhelming keening noise as every muscle tensed around him in a way that sent us both reeling.
Jared followed me over, driving hard and filling me with a frantic groan that echoed through the lab.
He spilled into me with that same crazed urgency before finally stilling, buried as far as he could possibly go.
We stayed like that until the air cooled on our skin and our breathing slowed.
Until the intensity faded a little and we could make ourselves move again.
“Holy shit,” Jared said at last.
The smug grin on his face was impossible to miss.
I kissed it off of him slowly.
“That got out of hand fast.”
He chuckled, not sorry in the least. “It didn’t sound like you minded.”
“Maybe not,” I admitted with my own wicked smile.
As he pulled out of me, I felt empty and full all at once.
I needed that. I didn’t even know I needed it until it was happening.
We found our clothes and cleaned up in an awkward silence that might have been uncomfortable if I wasn’t still buzzing from how good it felt to be alive and free just for a second.
He helped me pick up the paperwork that had been tossed off my desk.
Then there was an awkward moment between us.
What did one say after something like that?
“Come to my house tonight so we can work this out again.”
I looked at him with surprise.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“Jared, I really shouldn’t. I?—”
“Look, should was ten minutes ago. We did. Again. Come by tonight.”
“Well, since you’re asking so nicely,” I said, even as my body still twitched.
“I suppose I could make time.”
“You’d better.”
His words were low and playful.
He stepped close enough to brush my arm before walking away, tossing a confident smile over his shoulder as he walked out of the lab.
The moment he was out of sight, I slumped against the desk, feeling scandalized and exhilarated all at once.
I couldn’t believe we’d taken things this far.
Again. That we’d risked getting caught in what was supposed to be a serious workplace.
But Jared’s insistent mouth—his hands and his voice and the way he pushed me to that wild edge—made it feel like nothing else mattered.
Clair stopped at the door and gave me an odd look.
My face burned with the memory of Jared inside me, filling me in every way.
“Hey, you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I answered too quickly.
“Just a lot to catch up on.”
“I saw Jared. Did you guys talk?”
That was an understatement.
“Yes.”
“And everything is okay?”
“Yep.” I smiled again.
“Okay. Let’s go for a drink tonight. You look like you could use a margarita.”
“You have no idea,” I said.
“Great. I’ll see you tonight.”
I flopped into my chair and buried my face in my hands.
His invitation echoed in my head.
Technically, it was more of a demand than an invitation.
I should say no. I should definitely say no.
But it or not, we were both helpless to fight whatever this was between us.