Chapter 16 #2
I laugh even as my eyes fill with unexpected tears.
Brow furrowing again, he lifts his hand, skimming his knuckles gently across my cheekbones. “I was just teasing. I didn’t mean to make you upset.”
“You didn’t,” I assure him with a sniff. “I just…I like be ing one of your girls. Mimi does, too. She thinks you’re so cool.”
“I feel the same way,” he says, adding before I can think to ask, “and nothing is going to change that, Elly. No matter what happens between us, I’ll always be her buddy, as long as that’s okay with you.”
“It’s very okay with me,” I whisper, reaching out to curl my fingers into the gorgeous black button-down shirt I’ve already rumpled, slowly drawing him close. “But you know what I’m not okay with?”
“What?” he murmurs, bracing his hands on either side of the door, bringing his lips deliciously close to mine.
“No man of mine is going to pimp his body out on Bourbon Street,” I whisper. “I’d sell an organ first. Deal?”
“Deal.” He nods, his lips curving as he bends close. “And pretty fucking excited to be your man, Eloise. Now turn around, baby, and let me kiss this gorgeous back I’ve been dreaming about getting my mouth on all night.”
Holding his gaze, I turn, slow and teasing, knowing we don’t have to rush. We have all night.
“Really?” I draw my hair over my shoulder, ensuring there’s nothing in his way. “All night?”
“Since the second I saw that drunk fucker getting way too close to you,” he confirms, his fingers tracing the hollow of my spine, making me shiver.
“First thought—I’m going to smash that guy’s face in.
Second thought—God, her body in that dress.
But I’d like to get you out of it now, if that’s okay. ”
“More than okay,” I whisper as he leans in.
My eyes slide closed as his warm lips kiss the back of my neck, then between my shoulders, even as he guides my dress down in the front.
Silky fabric skims over my tight nipples, making me shudder.
Then, his tongue is laving a searing trail lower, lower, baring every piece of me while he makes me burn.
By the time my dress puddles at my feet, leaving me in nothing but my high heels and tiny satin panties, I’m shaking.
“Turn around, chère ,” he murmurs, cursing as I turn, my breath already coming fast. Something that almost looks like pain flashes across his handsome face. “Look at you. Look how perfect you are.”
“Not perfect,” I whisper, though I feel pretty perfect right now, seeing myself reflected in the heat of this gorgeous man’s eyes.
And who knows? Maybe he likes tiny silver stretch marks and women who haven’t done a sit-up in way too long.
“Perfect,” he insists. Then, he drops to his knees in front of me, and my brain short-circuits. “Except for one thing.” He curls his fingers over the top of my panties on either side. “These need to go.”
“Agreed,” I whisper as he drags them down my thighs, holding my gaze the entire time. I step out of them, still in my heels, and from the first swipe of his tongue up the seam of me to my clit, I know that was a poor decision on my part.
No way am I going to be able to balance in stilettos while the man of my dreams devours my pussy.
Not an ice hockey rink’s chance in hell.
“Easy there, darlin’, let me help,” he says as I sway. He catches me, cupping my ass in both his big hands, lifting me into the air against the door.
I suck in a breath. “Grammercy, I?— ”
“Don’t worry, chère , I’ve got you,” he rumbles. “Just spread your thighs for me, sweetness. I’m pretty sure I’m going to die if I don’t get a proper taste of you.”
I obey, and he goes in for the kill, swirling patterns with his tongue before sucking my clit into his mouth with rhythmic pulls that make me cry out.
My hands fly to his hair, holding on for dear life as he pleasures me with an obvious passion for his work that’s nearly as much of a turn as the way he alternates between ripples of his tongue and targeted suction that has me writhing.
Then he slides two fingers, three, into where my body has already started to pulse, and I come with a cry that becomes a needy whimper as he stays with me through every ripple and wave.
He guides me down to earth and back toward release with the skill of a doula coaching her hundredth mama through childbirth.
I’m so impressed, I nearly tell him so, but then he stands, his face wet from loving me, and it hits me all over again just how wild this all is.
“Bed?” he asks.
“Now,” I agree, taking his hand, past ready to show him I know how to return the favor.
I help him tear at his clothes, ensuring he’s almost naked by the time we reach the bed, where I grip his suit pants and boxer briefs in my hands, drawing them both down his legs. His thick length bobs free, as huge as he felt in the club, but also surprisingly beautiful.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a penis in the wild, but I was pretty sure “beautiful” wasn’t a word I’d ever use in conjunction with one of these spongy, vein goblins.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the way a well- handled cock makes me feel, but aesthetically, they’ve never been high on my list.
But Grammercy’s?
It’s perfect—girthy and straight with a thick ridge that makes it look like even his penis lifts weights.
“What a pretty cock you have,” I whisper, bringing my mouth to his already leaking tip, brushing them back and forth, smearing my lips with his salty pre-come like lip gloss. I look up through my lashes to see him shaking his head back and forth. “Yes,” I insist. “It’s a sexy beast.”
“No. I mean, thank you, I just meant, I can’t let you…
” He trails off with a gulp that makes his Adam’s apple bob in his throat.
“If you do, I’ll come, and I need to be inside you before that happens, El.
” He reaches down, pulling me to my feet with gentle but firm hands on my upper arms. “I need your pussy locked around my cock like I need air.”
I shiver as he draws me close, and my bare skin connects with his for the first time. He’s even warmer than I am, especially the eight-or-nine inches of molten heat pulsing against my belly as he squeezes my ass.
“Then you should get inside me already.” I rock forward, nudging my clit against his hard-on with a soft gasp. I’m so sensitive, so wet, I know it won’t take much to take me there again. “I’m ready, Grammercy. Past ready.”
I kiss him and instantly it’s the way it was in the club, so wild and raw, I don’t remember how we get onto the bed. I only remember that every second of it feels right and that when he pulls a condom from the bedside table, my body celebrates at the cellular level .
“Yes, please,” I breathe, dragging my nails down his muscled thighs as he kneels above me.
His hands begin to shake, a thing that makes me feel even more beautiful, more turned on.
“Here, let me help,” I whisper. I roll it down slowly, loving the way his breath hitches and his abs clench when I squeeze the base.
He curses in French, and then he’s surging over me, fitting this cock to where we both need him to be. And then he’s in, pushing deep, ripping a startled gasp from my throat.
“Are you all right?” he asks, freezing halfway to slamming home.
I nod quickly. “Yes, so good. It just stings a little. It’s been a long time.”
“How long?” he asks, still holding absolutely still, giving me all the time I need.
“Three years,” I confess a little sheepishly.
“I dated a guy at my first office job, after Mimi was born, but we broke up and I never… I tried dating again but…” I lift my hips, pulsing up, taking just a little more of him, the stinging sensation slowly fading.
But the worry remains. “Do you think I’m the lamest girl in Sex Town? ”
His lips twitch, but he doesn’t smile. The tension in his face makes it clear how hard he’s still fighting to let me set the pace, a fact that makes me fall a little deeper under his spell.
“No, chère ,” he murmurs. “You’re the sexiest woman in Sex Town. The sexiest woman I’ve ever had the honor to be inside of.”
“Only halfway inside,” I whisper as I cup his face. “I’m ready, baby. I promise.”
Am I, though ?
By the time he glides deep with an aching slowness made even more intimate by the fact that his eyes never leave mine as he joins us as intimately as two people can be, I’m not sure.
It’s so intense, so powerful, and so damned hot, I’m gasping by the third stroke.
The drag of him lights up nerve endings deep inside, I’d forgotten were there. But it’s his expression that drives me to the edge faster than anything I’ve ever experienced before.
I’ve never felt more seen, more special, like something as rare and wonderful as a secret garden full of music only a precious few ever get to hear.
He picks up the pace, and I meet him stroke for stroke, both of us groaning as his hand finds mine, lacing our fingers together beside my head.
It’s such a simple thing, holding hands during sex, but it breaks something open in my chest.
I really am safe, here, with him. So safe and so full of joy and hope, I can’t contain it for another second.
I have my first penetrative-sex orgasm with his name on my lips and tears on my cheeks, overwhelmed by the beauty of it all. And he’s right there with me, whispering sweet things I can’t understand in French as he buries his face in my neck and follows me over.
My name wrenches from his throat with a ragged cry, and I hold him through it, the same way he held me—this big, strong man who’s shattering to pieces in my arms.
After, I glide my fingers through the damp curls at the base of his neck as he pants against my throat, fighting the urge to say ridiculous things.
Like I love you .
I love you, never leave me or give me a reason to doubt that this magic is as real as it feels right now.
Then, he kisses me, soft and slow, before whispering, “Stay with me? I can get up early and carry you back to your bed so Mimi doesn’t know, if you want. I just… I need you here. Right next to me.”
“I need that, too,” I say, smiling up at him as he pulls back to gaze down into my blissed-out face. “But I don’t think we need to worry. Mimi likes to sleep in on Saturdays. And if she does realize I slept in your room, I’ll just tell her the truth.”
His brows lift with a startled jerk that makes me laugh.
“Not that truth,” I say, with a laugh that makes me very aware of the fact that he’s still buried inside me. I bite my lip as I add, “I’ll tell her that you were lonely and needed cuddles and, as a friend who likes you very much…I was happy to oblige. Mimi knows we all need cuddles sometimes.”
“I do need cuddles,” he says, his lips curving as he adds in a softer voice, “and to fuck you again as soon as possible, but we won’t share that part.”
I giggle as he flips us over, guiding me on top. “No, we won’t,” I agree. I reach down, holding the base of the condom in place as I slowly unseat myself from his softening length. “We’ll keep that part to ourselves.”
As he disposes of the condom with help from some tissues by the bed, I can’t help noticing again how foxy his cock is, even in its semi-flaccid state. “I meant what I said about your cock, by the way. He’s a special little guy.”
His eyes narrow in a mock glare as he stretches out beside me. “Little guy? ”
I shrug, fighting to keep a straight face. “I mean, compared to the rest of you, yeah. Compared to, say, an arm or a leg or your intestines. Did you know that your intestines, once unrolled, are over twenty-six feet long? That’s longer than an Olympic diving board.”
“I’m going to toss you off a diving board,” he growls as he rolls on top of me again, still doing his best “I’m pissed” face.
I giggle as I cup his cheeks in both hands. “Stop. You can’t do it. Your fake mean face isn’t scary, baby. Not even a little bit.”
He smiles, his gaze softening in a way that makes my stomach flip as he whispers, “I like it when you call me baby. Keep it up, and I’m going to be hard again in no time.”
“Terms of endearment turn you on?” I ask, skimming my nails down his back.
“When you’re the one saying them,” he says, dropping a kiss on my forehead.
I sigh as I murmur, “I’m glad your mean look is only for bad guys. You were pretty scary earlier tonight, though. For a second there, I thought you were going to introduce Brad to your fist.”
“I thought about it, believe me,” he murmurs against my skin before he pulls back to meet my gaze.
“But I try not to indulge that part of myself. And I signed a code of conduct addendum to my contract. If I start punching frat douches on Bourbon Street, I could lose my job, and since we’re all depending on me for health insurance…
” His loops hook up on one side. “I figured that probably wouldn’t be a smart idea. ”
My ribs tighten again, making it harder to breathe as I whisper, “You were thinking of us? Even then? ”
“I’m thinking about you a lot lately, chère ,” he says, the hint of embarrassment in the words making them even sweeter. “It might be becoming a problem.”
I shake my head, heart swelling until it’s so full it feels like it might explode. “No, it’s not. It’s the best. You’re the best, and I…” I bite back the scarier confession, trying to leap out of my mouth. Instead, I take a breath and say, “I’m so glad I’m here. With you.”
“I’m so glad you’re here with me, too,” he says, and then he proves it.
By the time I’ve come two more times—once on top, once in the shower with my gorgeous man behind me, whispering filthy things in French in my ear as he pumps into me from behind—I’m the happiest I’ve been in years.
Maybe in…ever.
I have a beautiful baby girl, my health, and a couple of good friends, but my parents are gone, and most of my high school friends left me behind long ago, when our lives diverged in such different directions.
I’ve been on my own for a long time. It’s been ages since I’ve felt supported or protected, and romantic love just hasn’t been in the cards.
Even when it was, it’s never been like this.
I’ve never felt so safe or valued, so completely in sync with the man I was dating. I’ve never felt like he was a friend I could trust with my deepest secrets, as well as a smoking hot guy I want to do filthy things to me in the dark.
But of course, I haven’t trusted Grammercy with all my secrets.
Not yet .
But I will , I promise myself as I drift off in his arms around one in the morning.
Soon.
Surely, he’ll understand. He’s a very understanding person.
Still, a part of me shudders in terror at the thought of doing anything to derail this miracle that’s somehow found its way to my door.
Because that’s what this feels like. A miracle.
And I don’t know if my heart could survive losing it.