9. Lana
nine
lana
“How are you single?” I blurted. The words tumbled past my lips before I could stop them. I watched as his brain processed what I’d said, and he froze.
He blinked, then a manly brow rose. “What?” He chuckled, brushing a tendril of hair out of my face and behind my ear.
It was a while after we had brunch.
Wilson had proved over and over he knew his way around a kitchen. Especially after stacks of the best crepes I had ever eaten with freshly cut fruit, crispy bacon, and the fluffiest scrambled eggs I’d ever tasted. The man was not only incredibly good looking, successful, and obviously educated, but he also cooked like a chef!
“I mean… you’re thirty-eight. You look like you do… you can cook like that—“ I pointed at the kitchen because I hardly had the energy to do much more than sit on his lap, something he had insisted on after we cleaned up in the kitchen and moved to the living room. I wouldn’t have thought that sitting on an almost stranger’s lap would have been comfortable, but Wilson had stopped feeling like a stranger. I wasn’t sure when that happened, but he felt like someone I had known forever.
“You kiss like the devil himself.” I winked, and he smirked.
“You’re good for my ego,” he muttered, slightly blushing at my compliment.
“So, why are you single?” I asked again, and when he didn’t respond, the smile on my face slowly started to melt away. “Or was it stupid of me to assume you were and you’re not single, and somehow, you conveniently forgot to mention that?” An ugly feeling started to grow in my belly. I didn’t like the idea of him being someone else’s. He might have said things in the heat of the moment, but didn’t everyone do that? Especially guys? They’d say almost anything to get what they wanted.
“Don’t go there,” he said, shaking his head. “I told you I’m a possessive asshole.”
“You didn’t say asshole.”
“I figured with how we met, you already knew that part of me.” I laughed. Hard. When I stopped, I looked at him.
“So… you are single? There isn’t a wife and kids at home or a girlfriend wondering where you are?”
“If I had any of those, why would I have asked you to be my date to the ball?” he asked, bringing up the event for the first time since we’d arrived.
“I don’t know. Men with money and power get away with a lot of things.” I shrugged.
“I’m single, beautiful. And as to the why…” He sighed, running his fingers through my hair. I could feel him start to relax. “I grew up with my grandfather. My parents passed away when I was young, and he raised me. Well, let’s just say he wasn’t the sweet nurturing grandpa you see on TV.”
“He was mean to you?” I hated that for him, but he shook his head.
“No, baby, the old man wasn’t mean. He was just… stuck in his ways. Things had to be his way. My life had to follow the path he planned. And I stupidly went along with it until he couldn’t push me around anymore, and by that time, he’d gotten to an age where he knew he wasn’t going to live forever and started to change his tune about shit I’d had drilled into my head.”
“Like what?”
“Like things about money and business. What was important.” He shrugged.
“You said was .”
“Yeah.” His voice softened. “The day we got into our accident?” I nodded. “I was headed to his celebration of life.”
“Wils.” I reached for his free hand and tangled our fingers together.
“I was running late because instead of cancelling my day and leaving it free to remember him, I took on four meetings and was running late.”
“The thing that was more important,” I repeated quietly. He’d said he had somewhere important to be, and I had mocked him. “Oh my god, Wils! I am so sorry?—“
“You didn’t know. I can only imagine what a huge dick you thought I was.” He leaned in and nuzzled his nose against mine. My body swayed forward, loving how close we were. Sitting on his lap, my leaning in closer, his big more-than-capable hands in my hair. Heaven.
“I’m sorry about your loss. He might not have been what you wanted, but he was yours,” I whispered, and he nodded.
“Yeah,” he sighed, pulling his head back. “He would have liked you.”
“You think so?” I found myself asking, indulging in the fantasy that we had some kind of possibility of a future together.
“Yeah.” He grinned. “He would have loved the way you put me in my place and have given my attorneys the run-around. Sometimes, I think…”
“What?”
“That he somehow, from the great beyond, put you in my path.”
“Wils,” I whispered. We were going down a dangerous road. One that would end up messy with a side of heartbreak.
“One of the last things he said to me before he died was that wrong turns took you on all kinds of adventures. I’m fucking glad I took a wrong turn.” Everything inside of me turned warmer and fuzzier.
“And that I ruined your crazy expensive car?” I asked. He slowly started to grin.
“You’re admitting it was your fault.”
“I never said that.” I pouted, and he chuckled.
“I won’t lie, I got out pissed and overwhelmed, ready to yell at whoever hit me, but when I reached and opened your door…” He paused for a moment. His thumb stroked the edge of my face. “One look at you mixed me up. A light breeze could have tipped me over.”
“What do you mean?” I laughed, positive he was bullshitting me.
“You’re that fucking beautiful, Lana.” His voice was thick with emotion. Emotion that felt a lot heavier and more serious than whatever I’d thought this whole thing was.
“You’re not so shabby yourself.” I shoulder-bumped him in an attempt to keep things light, not sure if I wanted to steer down the serious direction it felt like this conversation was headed.
“Now I’m your fake girlfriend. Maybe your grandpa set me in your path so you wouldn’t have to go to that fundraiser alone?”
“About the ball…”
“When is it? In the hurry to leave yesterday, I forgot to ask about the details or itinerary. Where and when do I have to pretend to be your girlfriend?”
This was good.
Bringing up why I was there, reminding the two of us this whole thing had an expiration date. That it was just a means to an end.
“It’s cancelled.”
“What?” I squeaked. He pointed towards the window.
“We’re actually snowed in for a bit.” I stood off his lap and walked to the picture window, pulling the curtains a little more. My eyes widened at the sight in front of me.
“Wils… the car… umm,” I started to say but didn’t finish. How could I when I felt his body behind mine, his hand on the curve of my hip. The heat of his palm permeated the material, leaving nothing but a fire to run through me.
“It’s covered in snow.” His lips pressed against my lips. “I know.”
He knew. Okay that made me a little more relaxed. But not really. As great as it felt to have him close, I’d never been stuck somewhere.
“Have you, umm…” My eyes fluttered shut when he kissed my temple again. I tried but failed not to melt against him. I was a goner when his lips started to travel south. It was hard to stay focused. “Have you ever been, umm, snowed in anywhere?” That prickle of worry started to fade away.
“Once,” he shared just as his lips found the crook of my neck.
“Does that mean you know what to do?” I whispered, leaning back, pressing my body against his and not missing the hard ridge between his legs.
“About being snowed in or with you?” That’s when my control died and I shivered. I felt like my body was one big electric livewire. One that was sparkling to life, making me hyperaware of every molecular nerve ending.
“Both," his voice rumbled. Wilson’s hands stroked my arms, stopping at my shoulders before he dipped his head lower and really rocked my world.
“You’re safe with me, Lana.” he promised. My knees almost buckled. Not because of his words but because of how he said them.
Like a vow.
A promise.
One that made it feel like it was him and me against the world.
All with five little words.
I wasn’t sure if it was his words or the intense chemistry between us, but I turned around in his arms, and when I gazed up at him, my heart felt like it stuttered in my chest.
“I know.” My voice trembled, but there was no denying the confidence in my words. Wilson swallowed hard, drawing my eyes down to his Adam’s apple. Strong and predominant, much like him, as it rose and fell.
Like he was trying to control himself.
For me. I did that . I’d brought this usually grouchy, stuffy, workaholic of a man to the brink. Then something came over me.
I was done holding back.
He was different.
I might not know what that meant or had any clue of where this would possibly go, but I knew for whatever time we had together, I wanted to be with him in every single way possible.
My hand rose and cupped his face. His beautiful eyes widened then narrowed, like he didn’t know if he should trust me. But the longer I stroked the side of his face, the more he relaxed. “Wils?” I said, breaking the silence.
“Hmm?” he grunted. His gaze was laser-focused on my face. A woman could get addicted to the way he looked at me. Like he was afraid he’d miss something. Like I was the only thing that existed.
He’ll forget all about you once he has you , a cynical little voice perked up in the back of my head. He’ll move on to someone else. Something new and shiny, and you’re going to be left devasted. His hand rose and covered the one on his face.
“What is it, Lana?” he snapped me out of my pessimistic thoughts.
The rich tone in his voice made me press my thighs together. I felt hot and wet. My skin almost seemed to tingle just beneath the surface. I licked my lips, captivated by the way his eyes dropped to my mouth and dilated. Turning so dark, holding the promise of so much more, I needed to make a move.
Consequences be damned.
My hand dropped from his face and slowly glided down his chest. He might not have said a word, but his muscles twitched and flexed beneath my touch. It made me wonder about his everyday life. Something I had no business wondering about. To distract me from going further down that path and daydreaming about how the hell I would fit into his life, if it was possible, I took his hand in mine.
His head tilted, but once again, he didn’t say a word.
I liked how it felt to hold his hand. Bravely, with courage I had no idea where I was summoning it from, I held my head up high as I led us back to the bedroom. He stepped in, and with shaky hands, I reached for the hem of his sweater I was still wearing.
“Wait,” he broke the silence, and I bit the inside of my cheek. Will he tell me he isn’t interested in me? Tell me it’s a bad idea? Say something stupid?
“You sure about this, Lana?” He took a step closer to me. So close, I could feel his body heat radiating against mine. I shivered. “Because if I take you, you give me the gift of your body, I’m telling you right now, I know it won’t be enough. There won’t be any turning around from where we are going. This isn’t just for fun to me. This is real.”
“So serious,” I whispered, trying to lighten the mood, but he wasn’t having it.
“I want you,” he rumbled. My nipples puckered tightly against the material of his sweater. “I want you so fucking much, but I need you to be sure.”
“What makes you think I’m not?” I asked, my hands back on his chest rubbing up and down.
“Lana.” He said my name almost like a warning.
“I want you, too.” I licked my lips and found myself telling him things I would have happily kept to myself but felt the need to confess. “I’ve been thinking about you… a lot since we met, and even though I was really stressed about the possibility of losing my house to pay for some guy to buff out the little baby scratch on your car, I’ve wanted you.”
“Lan—“
“When you opened my car door that day? And I looked at you? I thought you were the most beautiful man I had ever laid eyes on.”
“Lan—“
“And then you opened your mouth and immediately got on my nerves.” His lips twitched. My hands dropped the hem of the shirt he had on, and I started pulling it up. “Help me,” I whispered. I was too short to pull it over his head.
Without complaint, he did as I asked, tossing it to the ground, leaving him shirtless in front of me.
“Wow.” He was beautiful. He had a tattoo on his chest. Something with horns that almost looked like a demon. I quirked a brow up at him as my fingers traced the lines. “What’s this?”
“I guess you can call it teenage rebellion.”
“Let me guess, you did it to piss off your grandpa?”
“I’d been dumped at some boarding school for the summer, and a buddy and I got pissed and left. We just walked out. And for some reason, they let us. We hopped on a plane and found ourselves in Thailand. That’s where I got this.”
“Why were you mad?”
“I don’t even remember now.” He grinned and shook his head. Before I knew it, he dipped his head down to lean his forehead against mine. It made it feel like we were the only two people to exist. Everything and anything else about our lives faded away.
“Isn’t it funny how that happens?” I whispered. “I’m not sure what you said that made me call you a silver-spooned?—“
“Monkey,” he cut me off, filling in what I’d called him.
“You remembered,” I whispered. His body bent and he picked me up. My legs naturally wrapped around his waist.
“I remember everything when it comes to you,” he said, shattering whatever walls I’d built around my heart.
I kissed him and, without hesitation, like I was already his, Wilson’s mouth sought mine. Taking from me. I was more than happy to give him everything. I loved the way he controlled my body. The way his hands tangled in my hair and around my back. He made it feel like I was surrounded by him. Completely. And I couldn’t get enough. His tongue invaded my mouth, sliding against mine before I sucked on it. God, it was messy and needy and so damn perfect I couldn’t stop the way my body reacted to him.
My hips grinded against his thick length. Building up the ache and need inside of both of us. It was primal and almost feral. Before I knew which way was up, I was back on the ground. The moment my feet touched the hardwood floors, our hands were a blur of movements.
We tugged and pulled at each other’s clothes until we were wearing nothing but a smile.
A smile that didn’t last long because we both rushed towards one another as if we couldn’t stand the idea of not touching for another second.
“Wils,” I moaned the moment he lifted me back up in his arms. My legs instinctively wrapped around him, hands in his hair.
Our lips crashed against each other. We kissed until our lungs burned for oxygen. His taste engrained itself in my senses. His hands felt like they were all over me, and it was like no matter what, even if a sheet of paper didn’t fit between us, I needed to get closer to him.
“More,” I mumbled against his lips, loving the grunt-like sound he made before his mouth moved down to my neck.
In the back of my mind, I was aware of him moving. Slowly making his way through the room and straight to the bed. Suddenly, he was setting me down in the middle of it, and his body covered mine as my back arched against his chest.
“Wils, I need you,” I whimpered. His teeth scraped against the sensitive flesh at my neck, and my legs opened wider, giving his body room.
“Fuck, you feel good,” he groaned, his lips kissing the spot beneath my pulse point on my neck. “You smell incredible. Taste like the best thing I’ve ever had. You’ve ruined me, Lana.” He cursed, and before my brain could process what he’d said, he’d lined the tip of his thickness up with my entrance. “Are you sure?” he asked, and if I had any more walls around my heart, that would have crumpled them.
“Fuck me, Wilson. Please,” I whispered.
“I’m going to love you. This is more than fucking.” He groaned. My lips parted, ready to argue, but not a sound escaped.
Not when he pushed the tip of his dick inside me.
My eyes widened. He was so much bigger and thicker than I’d expected, and he was only a couple of inches inside. “Wils,” I whimpered, pressing my lips to his. “You’re so big.”
“Beautiful.” He pulled out of me before feeding my pussy a little more of him but nowhere close to all of it. He stretched me in a way I’d never been. Not even with the toy I kept in my nightstand I thought was big.
“I need more,” I whispered. “Give me all of it.” I panted. “Need all of you, Wils.”
“Baby,” he growled, almost like he was being tortured. The sound made me even wetter. “I take you too fast, I’ll break you in two.” I clenched around him, and his forehead touched mine.
“Shit! You like the idea of me taking you hard.” He grunted, and I nodded, or tried to.
“You won’t hurt me. I can take you. All of you.” I had no idea where the confidence was coming from, but I needed every inch of him. Long past the line of lust, I wanted to burn for him.
His lips touched mine, and his hips pulled away, taking him out of my body. I braced, expecting him to thrust completely inside of me, but he didn’t. He slowly inched forward. When he pulled back, I looked between us. My body stretched to accommodate his size, and he was only halfway in. He pulled out again, and this time, he thrust inside of me with one long powerful stroke. He filled me to the brim, his balls rested against my ass, and I arched off the mattress.
“Wils!” I shouted, clinging to him. My nails embedded themselves in his shoulders. He froze in place, his upper body almost quaking as he held still above me.
“Too much?” His Adam’s apple bobbed heavily. “Fuck, please talk to me, Lana.”
“No.” I shook my head, squeezing my sex around him. “You feel… so good. So, so good.”
“You’re so damn tight.” He groaned, a deep guttural sound. I squeezed again and relaxed. “You keep doing that, this is going to be done before we really get started,” he gritted, and I found myself smiling up at him.
Have I ever smiled at a lover during sex? His gaze caught mine, and he returned it. This was more than sex. He is different.
“You feel so good, beautiful.”
“Love me,” I whispered, not sure why I chose to use that word, but it felt right. Wilson’s nose flared, and I lost sight of him. His head dipped down to my neck, and the animalistic sound he made vibrated against my skin.
“Fuck yeah, I will,” he rasped, pressing his lips to my neck. My limbs wrapped around him, and his hips started to move. Hard. Fast. Almost punishing.
Filling me again, only to pull back, then filling me up again and again. Time stopped existing. The only thing I knew was pleasure. Pleasure Wilson gave me. Sweat-slicked skin slapped against one another, making it the soundtrack of the night. He built the feelings inside of me higher and higher, to almost cresting when he rolled us over and set me on all fours. I looked up and caught what he’d done. Placing us in the middle of the mattress so I could watch him fuck me in front of the mirror that leaned against the wall. His hands rubbed my ass cheeks before he smacked my flesh with a hard spank.
“Perfection. This ass. Jesus, baby.” He smacked each side again and again, making me moan. I fought from shutting my eyes. I wanted to watch him as he had his way with me. Hard. Sweaty. “Fuck, this ass is a work of art.”
“Wils,” I groaned, “I feel empty.”
“That pretty little mouth likes to talk dirty, doesn’t it?” He leaned forward to kiss my shoulder, his eyes locked with mine in the reflection on the mirror. “I’m going to fuck you good, don’t you worry about that, gorgeous.”
“Yes!” I hissed. He teased my entrance, and before I could say anything, he filled me. He wrapped an arm around my waist, lifting me up just a little and rubbing my clit.
“Oh!” I cried out. “Wils. Wilson… more, just like—“ My voice cracked. I had no way of warning him. My body convulsed as my pussy milked his thick long cock. My orgasm crashed through me like a riptide of waves. One after another. I couldn’t get enough. Every time I thought the pleasure he brought to life ebbed, I was taken up and under the peak of bliss. His hand never stopped working my clit.
“Give me another!” he urged. “Come on this fat dick again. Give it to me, Lana. I need to feel it again. Want my girl to come on my cock.” My eyes shut, and I made a sound I wasn’t sure was human as my body followed his demands.
As I came again, I felt a hot, wet gush escape my body. Coating my thighs and the sheets below us, making me see stars. Bliss that felt never ending while Wilson rutted in and out of my body until he stiffened. My hooded eyes opened just in time to watch him empty himself inside my body, leaving me exhausted and panting.
I would have fallen back down on the bed if he hadn’t been holding on to me.
“Fuck.” He breathed heavily, kissing my shoulder and neck, running his fingers through my hair. “Shit,” he cursed, laying us down, settling me into his side, making me feel like a piece of a puzzle clicking into the other perfectly.
Like we were made for one another.
He pressed his lips against my forehead before I managed the strength to look up at him.
“Hi,” I whispered, and he smiled at me.
“Hi.”
“I should go clean up,” I said quietly, not really wanting to move. Wilson shook his head.
“Stay. I got you,” he reassured me.
“I can?—“
“I know you can, but I want to take care of you. Let me.” He was bossy, but I was too tired and content to argue. With a sigh, I pushed up to kiss his cheek.
“Okay, if you want to,” I whispered. He rolled me onto my back.
“I want to. Dreamt of this,” he mumbled. Something in his eyes flashed, but I couldn’t read it before it disappeared.
He peppered kisses all over my face until I giggled. Then he rolled away and, without hesitating, walked through the room butt naked into the connected bathroom. While I waited, I felt it, and my eyes shut.
“Shit,” I whispered into the room while the water ran in the sink.
In the heat of the moment, we hadn’t talked about condoms. I’d never had unprotected sex, but I also wasn’t on the pill. He stepped out with a smile on his face and a towel in his hand.
“I was thinking…” His words drifted off to nothing the moment he looked at me. “What’s wrong?” He hurried back to bed, rolling me on top of him. My eyes shut. I was literally leaking down on him.
“Baby, talk to me. Did I hurt you?”
“No,” I whispered. His hand tenderly cradled my face.
“Open those pretty blue eyes for me, Lana.” When I did, he sighed with relief. “Talk to me, baby.”
“We had sex.”
“Yeah.”
“I mean unprotected sex.”
“Yeah. I’ve never—”I placed my fingers over his lips.
“I haven’t either. Not once. But I’m not on anything and?—“
“That’s okay, too.” That intensity that flashed here and there in his gaze flared.
“Wils—“ He flipped me onto my back.
“I told you. I warned you.”
“But, handsome?—“
“If anything happens, it happens.”
“You say that now.” I started to tremble. Oh god! Is history repeating itself? First my mom, now me?
“Shh, you’re freaking out, and I need you to breathe for me, Lana. Please.” He took my hand and rested it on his chest. He inhaled, and I followed him, slowly relaxing. Then he started to talk again. Saying things that would have rocked my world or had me screaming and running out with anyone else. But Wilson wasn’t just anyone else. He was mine.
“This isn’t a game to me, baby. And if it were, it would have ended the moment we met.”
“I’m not sure I know what that means,” I mumbled quietly but honestly.
“You’re it for me, Lana.” Everything inside of me wanted to believe him. Even that small cynical part of me was particularly quiet.
“That’s very sweet of you to say, but you hardly know me.”
“I know you,” he reassured in a tone so fierce it didn’t leave room to argue. “Give us a chance. I promise, for good or bad, you have me in your corner forever.”
“As a hookup?”
“As everything. That’s what you are to me and what I hope I can be for you.”
“Everything?” I repeated. My head was dizzy with exhaustion and the moment, not to mention every emotion that felt like I was living in bright colors.
“Everything.” He leaned down and kissed the top of my forehead. “Now let me clean you up, okay?”
“Okay,” I agreed easily.
It was probably stupid to believe him, but in that moment, it was all I could do. He sounded so sincere. Honest. And the way he wasn’t freaking out almost made me wonder if he had done it on purpose. The hopeless romantic in me, one I didn’t know was there, wanted to believe every syllable out of his mouth.
Gently, he did just like he said. Cleaning me up, taking away his release from my body, he almost made me ache for him to replace it. To take me all over again. It was crazy. We had only just met. We didn’t really know one another, yet here I was, wishful that tonight had long-lasting consequences.
One time together, and I was halfway in love with him. I didn’t even recognize myself.
When he was done, he tossed the washcloth on top of the nightstand and pulled me closer to him. I didn’t even have to adjust or shift to find a comfortable spot against him. We just fit. Like two halves of a whole reunited.
He made me feel like I was home when he held me.
“Sleep, beautiful,” he murmured against my hairline, and I grinned sleepily into the crook of his neck. “Or else I’m going to have to take you again, and you need rest,” he threatened sweetly.
Just like that, my body started to wake up, but exhaustion won. I drifted off to the deepest, most relaxing sleep I’d ever had.