Chapter 25
Zane
The next morning, I woke with a start.
The sound of a door creaking came from the hallway. Constance was using the bathroom, most likely.
I checked the time. Four in the morning was earlier than I’d planned to get up, but after confirming that the room was as it should be, I rolled over, landing on a lump. I pulled out the wadded-up T-shirt I’d cleaned myself up with last night.
It was a good thing I didn’t need much sleep. The sleep monster hadn’t claimed me last night until after I gave in to the urge to whack off to mental images of Peyton’s lips on me, then her under me, then riding me, then…
The door creaked again, but this time, it was my door.
Rolling back to face the door, I thought my imagination must be playing tricks on me. The form I saw highlighted against the dim hall light before the door closed again was the same one I’d gone to sleep hoping to have by my side.
She pulled down the covers and slid in next to me. “There’s an alligator under my bed.” Her arm came over my chest, and a leg draped over my thigh.
My cock took instant notice of her bare leg on mine, and I failed at swallowing my chuckle. “Really?” Snaking my arm behind her, I held her to my side. She was as warm and soft as I’d known she’d be.
“I’m not drunk. I mean, not anymore, and I wouldn’t lie about something life-or-death like that. Will you keep me safe? I couldn’t sleep knowing he was under there.”
“You’re taking a real chance, Angel. What if there’s another one under my bed?” I lifted the hem of her shirt and stroked her lower back.
“Then we’ll have to stay right here until it’s light and they go away.” Her hand traveled south to my stomach. A gentle finger traced my abs, but not quite low enough to hit the tip of my lengthening cock.
Last night, I’d almost died of self-induced frustration. “Is that the way it works with alligators?”
She nodded against my chest as she stroked. “They’re night creatures.” Her lazy finger tormented me, inches from my straining cock, and she damned well knew it. “I’m not drunk now.”
“You said that.” My fingers traveled down her back, finding ass cheeks, but no panties. That discovery made me even harder.
She snuggled closer. “Since it would be dangerous to fall asleep with an alligator under the bed—”
“You’re right. We can’t do that,” I agreed. Falling asleep was not on the agenda with this firecracker wrapped around me.
Her fingers tapped a rhythm on my abs. “We’ll have to find a way to stay awake until the sun comes up.”
“Can’t risk the alligators. I get it.” I traced up her spine with my nails. “I’m pretty relaxed,” I lied. “Maybe we could lie here like this and you could tell me more about your past in Boston. I’m dying to know.”
That was absolutely the truth. Now wasn’t a good time, but I was interested, and I wasn’t going to push her to take this to the next level physically until she was ready.
Matching the scrape of my nails on her back, she raked her nails across my chest. “Maybe later.”
“Okay. Having you here with me, knowing you’re safe, is all I truly need.
” Liar, liar, pants on fire. Okay, maybe not a total liar—I desperately wanted to be inside her, to tangle these sheets and make her scream my name.
But after last night, I’d proven I could survive without her another day, if I had to.
Peyton
With a little moonlight leaking in past the curtains, his bedroom was light enough for me to get the lay of the land in Zach’s room. Lying against him in silence, my desire ratcheted up with each passing second.
Sure, it had been a few hours since I’d drunkenly suggested I wanted to sleep with him, but he remembered it, right? Here I was, sneaking into his room, snuggling up against him, laying out hint after hint, and he wasn’t getting it.
The only thing I hadn’t done was straddle him and rub my soaking-wet folds over his cock like I was the heroine in one of my books.
Well, fuck it. After seeing my personal monster through the window yesterday, I wasn’t waiting one more minute to live the life I’d denied myself.
If the Strangler came for me today, it wasn’t going to be before I’d had a chance to truly live, even if only for this morning.
The monster wasn’t scaring me away from what I deserved.
For a moment I considered emulating my book heroines, climbing up and sliding my wetness over his cock. But I wasn’t that brave. Instead, I inched my hand down.
Would he push me away?
I wrapped my fingers around Zane’s big, warm cock—his very big, very hot cock was more like it.
After a gentle squeeze, he let out a small moan of pleasure. Success at last.
I didn’t need to turn on a light to know he was shockingly thick, bigger than I’d imagined, a real handful. My pussy clenched at the thought of taking him inside me. At least I was as wet as a Slip-n-Slide.
“Angel,” he moaned.
I hadn’t been with many men. Three wasn’t a high number. Well, four if I counted Billy in high school, but I’d only sucked him. Either way, it was enough to know Zane March was in a league of his own, a whopper. Whopper was a perfect nickname for his cock.
An instant later he pulled my hand away and rolled us over.
His hand pinned my shoulder, a heavy leg rested over both of mine, and his mouth hovered a hair’s breadth above me as his cock twitched along my side.
“Angel, you better know what you’re starting.
I’ll be honest. I’m so attracted to you that I’m not going to be holding back. ”
“Uh-huh,” I got out tremulously. I’d been warned.
“I’ve wanted you so badly it’s been tearing me apart. But I demand one thing. Be totally honest with me. If something bothers you, say so.”
“Okay.”
If he thought he was scaring me away, he didn’t get it.
These were words laced with male desire, the kind I’d longed to hear.
Not from any man, but from this man, him, the one man I’d been trying to keep myself from desiring since the day I’d laid eyes on him.
The attraction had been magnetic since day one.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
Maybe he was scared, but I refused to be. “I told you, I’m an adult, and I know what I want and who I want it from. Green light.” Grasping his face with both hands, I pulled him down to me.
He resisted, slowing my attempt to force the kiss I frantically wanted. Without breaking our lip lock, he took both my wrists and clamped them above my head with one hand. “Slower, baby,” he mumbled into my mouth.
Forcing myself to relax, I traced my tongue along his.
Soon, he showed me slow, steady strokes of his tongue, keeping pace with the subtle stroke of his hand down my side to my hip and back up, tracing a line between my breasts and up under my chin. Breaking the kiss, his tongue darted out to lick the tip of my nose. “That’s better.”
I wanted more, I wanted faster, I wanted him, but was powerless to force that. “I want to touch you,” I complained as I tried to pull a hand loose.
“You said you knew what you were getting into,” he said softly as his nose rubbed against mine.
“I said I know what I want,” I corrected.
“This isn’t a race.”
“But people will be up soon.”
“I’m sure Constance never went to bed.”
“Serena will probably come knocking on the door.” I expected her to arrive with breakfast sweets, maybe even before first light.
His hand lowered to my breast and teased me with a gentle caress. “Worried about how loud you’ll be when I make you come?”
His question shot another arrow of desire between my legs. “No.” I had never been a screamer, but I worried about the sound of the headboard banging, or springs squeaking. I felt the loss of his warm hand as he removed it from my breast.
He banged on the wall above us, twice. “Now you can be as loud as you want when I make you come.” His eyes took in my expression and read me too well. “What’s wrong, baby?”
“I don’t scream.” That was the truth, but only half of it.
“That’s in your past. What else?” he prodded, reading me like a book.
At least in the dark, my blush wasn’t obvious. “I’ve never orgasmed without my…”
“Your what?” he prompted.
“My toy.” I should have admitted to having more than one, including Mr. Big, a suction-cup addition to my shower I’d experimented with only once.
Zane’s eyes widened with desire. He probably thought I meant I’d used my toy in combination with a man.
Somewhere in the house, a TV went on—loud.
“Now Constance won’t be listening to us.”
Since I’d agreed to total honesty, I was trapped. “No. I don’t use them with a man. What I meant was, I’ve never orgasmed with a man…at all.”
He sucked in a breath and laughed lazily. “That’s in your past, Angel.” His thumb slowly circled my nipple. “You won’t try that shit with me.” It was a command, not a question.
I worried my bottom lip.
“There are times to be quiet,” he noted.
I nodded and squirmed to get a hand loose. It didn’t work.
“This is not one of those times.”
His low voice sent a shiver down my spine.
“When I finally suck your clit and tongue you into your orgasm, you let yourself go and scream. It adds to the endorphins. Only then will you get my cock in that sweet, warm pussy. Then, when you come the second time, you can scream again.”
I gasped as my core spasmed. “I don’t know.”
The men I’d shared a bed with hadn’t seemed to know what or where a clit was, and they’d never uttered the word. Fuck me, honey; ride me, honey—yes, but not the dirty words Zane had just spilled. And a scream added to the endorphins? I would definitely remember that.
His hand began moving again. “There are times for fast and hard.”
I nodded. I was on board with getting this train rolling.
“This is not one of those times either.” He released my wrists. “Be brave enough to go slow, baby.”