Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Beck
The lock on the hotel room door whirred and Stella appeared in the doorway, grinning as if she’d been waiting to see me. Her expression hit me like a physical force, almost knocking me off my chair. It was like seeing me made her happy.
It felt fucking fantastic.
“How many defenseless little grouse did you murder today?” she asked as she kicked off her shoes. I put down my phone on the table to give her my full attention. Her hair was piled high on her head, and her face was free of make-up.
She looked beautiful.
“Funny. And you’d be proud.” I gestured her over with a nod of my head.
“I would?” When she was close enough, I grabbed her hand and pulled her between my thighs.
“I bonded with Henry. You have quite the fan there.”
She forked her fingers through my hair. “I do?”
“Yeah. He likes you a lot. Not Matt’s biggest fan from what I can tell.”
“Really? Well, that makes two of us.” She leaned against me as I rested my hands at the tops of her thighs.
“You sure about that?” I asked her. “If he dumped Karen and told you he’d made the biggest mistake of his life, what would you do?”
“Agree with him.”
“Would you take him back?” I asked. Stella had so much to offer—she didn’t need to waste that on an idiot who didn’t appreciate her.
“It’s never going to happen, so I don’t need to spend time and energy thinking about what-ifs.”
It was such an evasion—did she really not understand that she was worth more?
“You’d just go along with it?” I asked. Because that’s what Stella did. She went along with things to make other people happy, without really thinking about what she wanted.
“I’ve not given it much thought.” She paused.
“But no.” She exhaled, her eyebrows pulling together as if she were deep in thought.
“No, I don’t think I would. I’d always be waiting for it to happen again.
And anyway, Matt’s not the man I thought he was.
He’s . . . different. I mean, I was wrong about him.
What he’s done is unforgivable, but . . . ”
“There’s a ‘but’?” I asked. She couldn’t think that what he had done was justified.
“Yeah. There’s part of me—a very small part of me—that thinks it’s not the worst thing that could have happened.
What if we had got married and then I’d found out he and Karen were sleeping together or that he didn’t love me the way I loved him.
I don’t know if it’s being here at their wedding but, although it’s still painful, I believe things will get better for me.
I’ll get to London and I’ll figure stuff out. ”
I couldn’t stop smiling. I hoped I’d had a part to play in her believing the future held promise. I pulled her down onto my knee. Perhaps I’d show her how good things could be.
I slid my hand up her skirt. I was done talking about Matt. “How was the spa? What did they do to you?”
She squirmed as my hand dove between her thighs.
“Erm, I had a massage?”
“Who touched you? A girl or a guy?”
“A girl, why? Are you jealous?”
I nestled my finger underneath the lace of her knickers. “It depends,” I replied. “Did you have a happy ending?”
She threw her head back and laughed and I grinned—not at my question but at the glorious sound of Stella happy. It was indisputable that Matt was an idiot for cheating on her with her best friend. But what if I gave her up when we got back to London? What did that make me?
She gasped and grabbed my shoulder as my fingers delved into her. “No, you’re the only instigator of my orgasms this week.”
Which was how it should be.
“You haven’t told me how it went with Henry,” she said, shifting so my thumb grazed her clit, enjoying her shiver.
“You want me to talk to you about my day while I’m getting you off?” Did couples do that?
She smiled then pressed a kiss on my cheek. “No, but I do want to hear about it.”
“Orgasms first,” I said, and pulled my hand away and lifted her onto her feet. She looked confused and then I began to undress her, lifting her t-shirt over her head. “And then we’ll talk shop.”
“If you insist. I’m not going to complain.”
“No, I’ll make sure you have nothing to complain about.
” I released the clasp on her bra, and she shrugged off the straps as I knelt to unbutton her skirt.
These clothes were for the people outside of this room.
They were part of the act—a mask, armor—but this space, the private time between her and me, that was real.
Once naked, she lay back on the bed, her arm bent, and her head resting on her hand as she watched me undress. “I like hanging out with you,” she said, and my heartbeat skipped, giving emphasis to what she was saying—painting the words in bold type.
I wanted it to mean more.
I wanted her to feel more.
“I like hanging out with you, too.”
I peeled off the last of my clothes and took her in, naked and waiting for me.
I couldn’t rush this. I wanted to breathe in every curve, every dip and arc of her.
To map her body with my tongue and then try to explain how fucking insatiable she made me.
I stepped forward and trailed my fingers up her body like a blind man reading the secrets of eternal life.
I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything, that I’d taken in every last word she told me.
“You okay?” she asked. “You seem intense. You want to talk about Henry?”
She didn’t think it was possible that I was intensely fascinated by her. “I’m not thinking about Henry. I’m thinking about how sensational your body is.”
She slid her hand over mine. “Really?” she asked.
“Is that so difficult to believe?” I supposed when the man you thought you were going to spend the rest of your life with ended up cheating on you, it was easy to believe you weren’t worthy of . . . admiration? Worship.
She didn’t answer and I continued my exploration.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever taken my time with a woman the way I did with Stella.
I never liked to rush things, but that was so the end result was intensified.
I liked to take my time with Stella because I wanted to savor the moment—not just build up to orgasm.
I needed to squeeze out every last drop of being with her, soak myself in her.
I’d never experienced anything like it before.
“Flip onto your stomach,” I said, guiding her over.
I swallowed as the lines and curves changed, her skin highlighted by the hazy, setting sun coming through the windows. “Let’s skip dinner,” I said. “We have all day tomorrow to spend with these people. Tonight, we should do this.”
She glanced over her shoulder at me, as if checking she’d heard me right.
A small smile turned up the corners of her mouth—part suspicion, part unease.
I got the uneasy part. The feelings Stella stirred in me were unfamiliar.
I’d never spent much time fully clothed with the women I dated.
But it was more than just knowing her well that set her apart. It was because Stella was Stella.
Unselfish.
Thoughtful.
Sexy.
There were a thousand things I liked about her.
I lifted her hips and pulled her back so her legs hit the floor. “Like this, I think.” She went up onto her forearms, her breasts grazing the mattress, and I growled at the memory of how they felt in my mouth.
Later.
I reached for a condom. I needed to fuck Stella hard and quickly tonight. Needed to claim her—to make her see what I saw in her.
Leaning over her, I whispered in her ear, “I’m going to make you come so hard, you’re going to forget everything bad and only remember the good stuff.
” I wanted her to forget her suspicions and bruised heart.
I wanted her to know what being able to trust someone felt like.
I slipped my hands over her shoulders, stroking my thumb over the dip at the top of her neck with one hand and then I trailed down the valley of her spine with my other.
When I reached the base of her back, I kept going down between her arse cheeks, over her arsehole and into her opening.
She was soaked; her wetness fueling my lust. I was done just feeling her on the outside. I needed to be inside.
I put my thumb in her mouth, had her suck it clean, and then positioned my cock. Instead of taking it slow, I entered her in one hard, fast thrust, pulling her onto me as I pushed forward, getting deep, deep, deep.
She cried out so loud anyone on the lawns outside our window would hear. Hell, most people within a half-mile radius would.
“You’re going to break me in two,” she cried out, her hands bunched full of sheets.
“Never,” I growled.
I pulled back and thrust in again, hard and fast. She let out the same desperate moan, one melting into the next. My balls tightened, and I anchored my hand around her waist. I had to steady her, keep her still, and I needed to be close to her, to feel every vibration across her skin.
“More,” she cried out as I stilled.
I thrust again, not stopping this time before I pulled out and plowed into her over and over. I couldn’t tell who was making which sounds as they bounced off the walls of the room.
Her back arched. “I’m . . . Please. Beck, please let me come.”
This wasn’t the time to make her wait. Our lust and desire had pushed us into a different state of consciousness and orgasm was the only route out. I wasn’t going to be able to hold back anymore than she was.
But the way she asked my permission, the way she had waited for me to say yes before she fully let herself go—it was too much. She was too much.
“Come, baby.” The words scorched my throat, and before the command had fully left my lips, she began to quiver under my fingers. My climax pushed from the base of my spine, spinning, circling, and pressing out and up. It went on and on until I was bursting out of my skin.
I wrapped my arms around Stella’s waist, holding her tight as she bucked underneath me, her orgasm combining with mine as we cried out in unison.