Chapter 28
Connor
Her breath faltered, and the stutter of her pulse echoed through her body to mine. I loosened my grip enough to let her move but didn’t let go right away, not until she’d found her balance again.
Those bright ocean eyes found mine and burned deep into me, like she was trying to read every thought I hadn’t said out loud.
I want you. I feel like I might die if I don’t kiss you.
Everything in me was leaning toward her—my chest, my breath, the pull in my gut that had nothing to do with sex and everything to do with recognition. Of her, of the last time she’d kissed me.
The space between us kept shrinking, her fingers bumped my chin, and she froze, gaze darting between my lips and then my eyes. A silent question threaded between us, and I knew I had to let her come to me.
I released her wrists from my grasp, even though every instinct I had was screaming to close the distance.
Her breath shuddered out of her as her hands slid higher, no longer just brushing against me but settling against my jaw.
Cool fingertips skated across my skin like the chill of the Pacific curling around me before sunrise, and it felt as though the whole world had narrowed to the place where her palms held my face.
As if she was securing herself there, steadying something that might otherwise slip away.
She looked at me like that—open, unguarded, a softness in her eyes that undid me far more than any bold move ever could—and I stayed where I was. Her thumbs traced small, almost absent lines along my cheeks, a touch that made my flesh pebble.
I leaned just a fraction closer, my eyes flicking to her lips.
Though not enough to steal the moment from her, only enough to let her know that I was right there, that I wasn’t going anywhere, that if she crossed this last inch, it would be because she chose to.
Our breaths tangled, warm and uneven, the space between our mouths feeling impossibly thin.
I was hard and wanting, desperate and aching in a way that went far deeper than my body.
She leaned in, her breath dusting against my mouth, and I had to fight the urge to inhale greedily, to take in every bit of the air she was giving me. If she were my life source, I’d let her keep me alive like this.
The first press of her lips was tentative and gentle, nothing like the first. She took her time, exploring me while she hummed quietly with every kiss. Every sound she made blurred my thoughts, until everything felt hazy and unfocused, like I was moving through warm, welcoming fog.
When she pulled back, she didn’t let go of me. Her hands still framed my face like she wasn’t ready to lose connection. Her forehead rested against mine, and the way her breath brushed over my lips again felt just as powerful as the kiss had.
The corner of her mouth lifted in a small, almost shy smile before she drew me back in.
I met her halfway without thinking, every instinct in me already attuned to her.
Her tongue brushed mine, and I opened, meeting every stroke with another until our mouths moved deeper, and our breathing turned uneven in the quiet of the car.
The space between us vanished completely, replaced by a rush that hit fast. My blood surged south, my stomach swooped as if I was falling, and suddenly, I was holding her tighter than I’d meant to. Letting go didn’t even cross my mind.
Every kiss built on the last, each one stealing a little more air, a little more control. I could feel her in everything—the way she leaned into me, the way she refused to break contact for long, the way she kept chasing my mouth. It was intoxicating.
And then her hands vanished and she pushed me back.
“Wait, wait, wait,” she breathed, head falling down. “I want you—”
“The feeling is definitely mutual, Teddy,” I interrupted, licking the remnants of her taste and immediately wanting more. So, I dipped my head to hers again, pressing another kiss on her pliant lips.
“Wait,” she said, smiling, gently pressing her hand to my chest to stop me. “I want you to come upstairs.”
Heat flared in her eyes, and my dick responded with a twitch. I swallowed hard and brushed a stray hair from her face. “Then let’s go upstairs.”
“There’s underground parking here,” she said. “If you turn left, I can open the gates for us.”
She shifted in her seat, and it took me a second to understand what I was seeing—that she was moving closer, not away.
The realization bloomed in my chest, like sunlight spreading through glass.
My whole body followed suit, warming, loosening, as if something in me had been waiting for that exact choice.
I reached for the gear shift, guiding us into drive, and she caught my hand before I pulled back. Just like that. Her fingers fit over mine like they’d always belonged there, her thumb brushing a gentle, absentminded path across my skin.
That point of contact was made of static, of magic, I was sure.
Because my breath went shallow, my grip tightening without permission, something electric stirring in my body, quietly reminding me that I was very much alive.
I stared ahead at the dark mouth of the garage and thought, with equal parts awe and disbelief, that I might actually come apart at the seams for this woman.
I followed her direction, easing the car toward the ramp that dipped beneath the building, and the lights dimmed, eclipsing the sun and giving way to concrete and fluorescent lights.
“Code is 6679,” Teddy said.
I typed the numbers into the keypad. The buttons chirped beneath my fingertips, and a second later, the gate shuddered upward with a slow metallic groan.
Rolling forward into the garage, I guided the car into an empty space near the far wall and cut the engine. The sudden quiet wrapped around us.
Teddy didn’t move right away.
Her fingers rested on the edge of the seat, then curled inward. There was a subtle lift of her throat.
“I don’t have to come in if it’s too much,” I offered, letting her know it was her choice.
She exhaled, long and slow, then finally opened her door. “It’s not.”
The garage air was cool against my heated skin. I had no preconceptions about what might happen next. I had plenty of fantasies, though.
I matched her pace as we walked around the corner, close enough that our arms brushed, not touching on purpose, but not avoiding it either.
The elevator doors slid open with a ding, revealing a mirrored box of brushed steel and more fluorescent lighting. She stepped in first. I followed and turned just enough that my body boxed her in without fully caging her.
When the doors closed, everything felt like the last time we were trapped in an elevator the night of the investor dinner. Except now, I could read her better. The flush in her cheeks was unmistakable, her eyes darker than before.
I leaned in, just enough that my mouth was near her ear, my voice quiet. “You still okay?”
She nodded, then huffed out a breath that sounded like a laugh. “There are cameras in here.”
That stopped me more effectively than a hand to my chest would have.
I smiled anyway and eased back the half-step she needed. “Good to know,” I murmured. I knew that us being seen together was a risk for everything she was trying to achieve with her team, so I obliged.
Her eyes flicked to mine in the mirror. Something warm and daring passed between us, unspoken but clear. She wasn’t saying she didn’t want me; she was saying to wait. And I could be patient, for her.
The elevator climbed. Each floor chimed, counting down the distance between us and privacy. Teddy was on Micah and Bobby’s floor, seventeen, and it felt like the biggest tease getting there with the air sparkling around us.
When the doors finally opened, the hallway beyond was quiet and carpeted, the air warmer than the garage.
She stepped out first, keys already in her hand, and I followed, the door sliding shut behind us with a finality that sent something sharp and wanting through me.
She stopped at her door, hesitating as I came up behind her, my chest to her back. I brushed her hair aside, slowly letting my fingers skim the warm skin of her neck. She sucked in an audible breath, her head tipping instinctively to the side like she was offering herself without saying a word.
“Connor,” she breathed, my name a warning and an invitation all at once.
I pressed my mouth to her neck anyway, just below her ear.
It wasn’t a claim. Not yet. Just a kiss that lingered long enough to tell the truth of how hard it was to stop.
My lips traced slowly downward, another kiss, only restrained by sheer force of will.
I inhaled her—clean skin, faint soap, something unmistakably her—and my control frayed at the edges.
My hands strayed to her hips, and I pulled her back into me, trapping her. I was hard, aching, my restraint a living thing between us.
Her head lolled to my shoulder, her jaw slack. She knew exactly what she was doing to me, and I knew she trusted me not to take more than she was giving.
I lifted my head, my mouth hovering near her ear. “Open the door, sunshine,” I murmured.
She got the door open then, quickly, like she knew if she didn’t, we’d never make it inside. The lock clicked, the door swung inward, and we stepped across the threshold, the hallway disappearing behind us.
And whatever patience I’d been clinging to snapped clean in two.
I spun her in one smooth motion, my hand sliding around her waist, and she gasped as I lifted her without thinking, instinct taking over, her legs wrapping around me automatically like her body already knew where it wanted to be.
My mouth was everywhere but where I knew it would undo me completely. Her hands fisted in my jacket, pulling me closer, like distance was no longer something she could tolerate.
My forehead dropped to hers for half a second, just long enough to steady myself, to make sure this was still us choosing each other and not me taking.
Then I kissed her.
Harder this time, because I had no restraint left to offer. She met me with the same intensity, mouth opening under mine, a sound slipping free that went straight through me. I swallowed it like it was mine to keep.
I broke away, only to drag my mouth down her jaw, my teeth grazing the sensitive skin there before my lips followed. Her head tipped back against the door, giving me access, trusting me with it.
My body throbbed with want, every nerve ending screaming for more. I pressed my hips forward just enough so that she could feel how much I wanted her.
Her hands slid into my hair, holding me there as our eyes locked. She swallowed but held my focus. “I want you.”
I know she’d said it in the car, but now we were alone, it was like a bolt of lightning to my eager dick. “Say it again,” I demanded, squeezing her hip and pushing deeper into her. “Say it when you can feel how bad I want you too.”
“I want you,” she said again, breathless and needy as she met my next thrust with a moan.
“Mmm,” I hummed against her mouth. “You know what I want?”
“Tell me,” she begged weakly, and the power trip of hearing that went to my head.
“I want to be on my knees for you,” I went on, quiet and brutal, moving to whisper in her ear. “I want you clinging to me, fingers in my hair, begging me not to stop while I fuck your pussy with my tongue.”
She made a sound that weakened my knees.
“Tell me you can handle that,” I said, pulling back just enough to look at her. “Because once I start… I’m not going to be gentle.”
She captured her bottom lip between her teeth before she said, “I can handle you.”
A low sound tore out of me, something close to a laugh, closer to a groan. “Good,” I murmured. “Because I’ve been thinking about this a lot.”
I eased her down first, setting her feet back on the floor. My hands lingered on her hips for a beat, grounding both of us, before I slid them down her thighs.
She sucked in a sharp breath as I lowered myself in front of her, her knees trembling, her nails raking through my hair, dragging against my scalp.
“Keep your hands there,” I told her quietly, not asking. “I want to feel you holding on.”
Her grip tightened immediately. I hooked my fingers into the waistband of her pants and tugged them down, inch by inch, watching her chest rise and fall faster with every movement.
Her white satin panties were already damp, clinging to her skin, a confession of how far gone she was.
Fuck, it made me ache more to be inside her.
A rough breath left me at the sight. “Look at you,” I murmured, more to myself than to her. I traced the edge of the satin with my knuckles, not touching where she wanted me yet. She whimpered, hips twitching instinctively toward my hand.
I moved my finger to drag down the center of her sex before hooking the material and slipping inside.
Her body folded forward as I was surrounded by warmth and heat and so much desire it was leaking onto my hand already.
I pushed inside her again, pumping once, twice.
Hearing her moans, feeling her hands tighten in my hair was—Fuck.
My teeth gently dug into the hard muscle in her thigh, and I was ready to lose my mind.
Pulling the material of her panties away from her skin, I dragged them down as far as I could.
She lifted her leg, and I hooked it over my shoulder, diving back toward her.
As soon as my tongue swirled her clit, her taste exploded, sweet and addictive, just like I knew it would be.
“Oh my—”
I pulled back, and she looked down at me, cheeks bright red.
“I need you to say my name when I’m eating you out.” I grinned and stuck out my tongue, never breaking eye contact with her as I licked a stripe between her pussy and she sang a tune of moans, groans, and breathless noises all in one. “That moan was pretty, but it isn’t what I asked for.”
“You’re such an asshole,” she panted, pulling on my hair, trying to coax me back to where she needed relief.
“Say it, or I don’t move.”
There was defiance burning in her baby blues, and I reveled in it.
“Come on, sunshine, I know you want it. Just need you to be a good girl and say my name if you want to come.”
She huffed, and I pressed a chaste kiss on her hip. She melted like butter in my hands.
“Fuck, Connor, please—”
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” I moved forward exactly where I wanted to be and added a finger, curling it against a spot that made her other leg shake and tremble.
She groaned as I sucked hard on her plump clit, her walls immediately pulsing around my fingers. I knew I didn’t ever want to stop, not until she screamed, not until she came all over my face…
“Oh, oh, Connor, fuck, fuck, I’m coming.”
I smiled into her pussy as she screamed and drenched me.
I was a happy fucking man.
A painfully hard, happy man.