Chapter 26
VAL
It was well after midnight when I heard Nolan come home.
While he and Cressida had been away schmoozing the press, I’d arrived at a conclusion.
Our close call tonight had put things into perspective.
Losing Nolan was inevitable, whether it was because we got outed by the tabloids, his impending nuptials, or our limited timeline.
So if I was going to lose him anyway, I wanted to know what it was like to actually have him.
Ever since Antonella’s car accident, I’d been hiding behind duty, wearing my discipline like an armor.
Taking chances, branching out on my own, considering my own needs—that was never in the cards for me.
My family needed me to be dedicated and accountable, not running off like Antonella.
But then I’d met Nolan. Getting close to him these past few months had me wanting to give in and do something for myself for once.
So I was done with making the responsible choice.
I wanted this for me. For us. Even if it was only for one night. No matter how much it hurt later.
When I heard footsteps in the hall, I paused mid makeup removal—still wearing my fancy gown—and ducked my head out of the bathroom.
Nolan leaned against the doorframe, looking delicious.
Pieces of mussed hair fell over his forehead and the long sleeves of his dress shirt were rolled up, exposing his corded forearms. A few buttons were undone at the top of his shirt, allowing me a peek at the slope of his chest. I felt his gaze like a searing touch as it raked over my body, lingering on my legs and my breasts.
He lifted his eyes to meet mine, thumbing at his bottom lip.
“Are you still wearing that just to torture me?”
I smoothed my hands over my hips in a nervous gesture, apprehensive at the words dancing on the tip of my tongue. But at my movement, his azure eyes darkened to midnight blue. “How’d it go? Where’s Cressida?” I asked.
“She’s with Daphne and Cora shutting down the bar. I’d say we have at least an hour or two before they return.”
An hour or two. All alone. The desire must have been plain on my face because before I knew it, he gripped my hips and pulled me into him.
My lips parted in a sigh and he darted his tongue inside, the sweet taste of him overwhelming.
As if of their own accord, my hands drifted down to rub his hard cock through his pants, my hips rolling against his.
A noise rumbled low in his throat. “If you keep touching me like that, I’m taking you to the bedroom.”
That sounded just fine to me. I grabbed his belt buckle, but when he pulled back, I frowned. “I’m ready, Nolan. Don’t you want to?”
At my question, he dropped his head back against the doorframe. “Fuck yes, I want to. Bad. But I don’t want you to get swept up in the moment and make a decision you’ll regret. Because if we do this—if you choose me—I’m never letting you go. So be sure it’s what you want.”
Chills rolled down my spine, my heart pounding like a set of runaway bongos.
I couldn’t think about what he meant by never letting me go—that was a question for when I was in a more rational frame of mind.
I didn’t know why I was so nervous—he’d made it more than clear that he wanted me.
But some small part of me still doubted if any of this was real, or if it was all an elaborate daydream.
Or maybe it was anxious anticipation because I knew what came next, after I said the words.
When he traced a fingertip down my cheek and across my lower lip, his eyes following its blistering path, warmth gathered at my core and spread throughout my body in pulsing waves.
Oh yes. I’d made my decision.
I chased that feeling and the words tumbled out of me before I could clam up.
“Ever since the day I snapped at you at the bar, I’ve never felt more alive.
Yeah, our situation is complicated. Not knowing what comes next is terrifying, but I know you’ll be at my side no matter what happens.
I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.
” I took a deep breath and he watched me with barely leashed desire.
“I want you, Nolan. I want this—us. Whatever this is between us, I want to find out. Right now.”
Faster than a blink, Nolan took me in his arms, his mouth finding mine with an urgent need. The kiss was wild and wanting, fierce and full of tongues and teeth. When I pulled away to catch my breath, he latched on to my neck, the strokes of his tongue sending little shocks dancing across my skin.
He kissed down to the tops of my breasts, tracing his fingers across them in a teasing touch, and my nipples hardened for him.
Just like I wanted, he pulled down my dress, exposing one breast to his torturous grazes.
Bending his head, he flicked his tongue across my nipple before taking it in his mouth and sucking.
“Yes,” I hissed, digging my hands into his shoulders and arching into him, demanding more. In response, he turned his attention to my other breast, licking and sucking until I was a whimpering mess. But it had already been months of dancing back and forth—I wanted him now.
He chuckled, pulling away with a wicked look in his eyes. “It’s our first time together, Valeria. You think I’m not going to savor every delicious moment? Patience.”
All I could do was make a sound of discontent that morphed into a moan when he dragged a hand up my thigh to the slit in my dress.
The throbbing between my legs threatened to overpower me as warmth unspooled in my belly.
With excruciating slowness, he slid a hand inside and teased at the soaked swatch of lace covering my aching pussy.
Pushing aside my thong, he traced a finger across my slickness, and I shivered.
Had anyone ever been so tortured? But with each encounter, I found that Nolan knew how to wring every ounce of pleasure from my body in a way even I couldn’t comprehend.
I loved the way he wound me up just to watch me shatter.
And I couldn’t wait to see how he broke me tonight.
“So wet for me already,” he said with a light stroke of his finger. Then he thrust it inside me until I was gasping. Adding two more fingers, he stretched me and nudged my legs apart with his knee. “Yes, just like that.”
My heart fluttered at his praise. “You’re enjoying this far too much,” I accused.
“Mm, I can’t get enough of you.”
Wasting no time, he unzipped my dress and I shimmied out of it, kicking it aside. Then I had an idea. In a bold move, I ripped off his shirt, buttons popping, and ran my hands over the planes of his chest and the ridges of his abs.
“Oh, it’s like that, is it?” he said, grinding his erection against my bare stomach. I could only lick my lips in response as my hands explored his body in long, greedy strokes. I wanted him inside me, pressed against me, all over me.
Nolan put a hand at my throat, gentle but firm, and pinned me in place against the wall as he looked at me.
I stood before him in nothing but my thong, my breasts bare and peaked, wetness leaking down my thighs.
As he drank me in, a ravenous hunger simmered in the depths of his eyes.
Then his lips quirked in a playful smile as he knelt before me, clutching my hips.
I wriggled to take off my thong, but his grip tightened.
“Behave yourself. Stay still.” He pushed my thong aside just enough so he could stroke his tongue across my entrance but left the front in place to add extra pressure against my clit.
My knees wobbled and I gripped his shoulders to stay standing as he delved deeper with his tongue, alternating fast flicks and long, slow caresses that had my legs shaking.
When he started fucking me with his fingers too, the pleasure began to build at the base of my spine and a wild sound tore from my throat. I dug my nails into his shoulders, moments from detonating in his arms—
But he stood abruptly, his devilish grin drenched in my arousal.
I looked at him, aghast, panting, left wanting. “Why’d you stop?”
“You’ll come when I say you can. Get in the bedroom.”
Something dark and depraved stirred inside of me at that demanding tone I loved so much. Quick to obey, I padded down the hallway toward his bedroom.
Even though we’d been fooling around for a while, I’d never been in his room. An exciting feeling of the unknown zinged through me as I entered his domain. A California king bed dominated the space, and the purring minx inside me thought, Plenty of room for us to play.
Nolan came up behind me, one hand going around my throat, the other finally freeing me of my thong. Then he traced slow circles around my clit as I arched into him. The hand at my neck slid down to cup my breast, mimicking the motions of his fingers on my clit.
“Feel how hard you make me, baby?” he said, pressing his cock into my back, and I rubbed my ass against him until he dug his fingers into my hips.
Twisting around, I made quick work of removing his belt and pants.
Desire blazed in his eyes, matching the inferno blitzing through me.
When I slid off his boxer briefs, his cock sprang free and my core ached with need.
I wanted all of him buried inside me to the hilt.
Taking him in my hand, I pulled him in slow strokes as I’d seen him do that first night at Summit’s Edge.
“Like this?” I asked, a curve to my lips.
His head dropped back with a groan. “Yes.”
Kneeling, I circled my thumb around the head of his cock, smearing the bead of pre-cum.
His fingers knotted in my hair as I licked one long stroke up the back of his shaft.
I smiled as I felt him shudder under my touch.
Then I took him in my mouth, circling my tongue around the head and using my hands. He got even harder.
“You want me to fuck that pretty mouth again?”
I looked up at him and nodded.
His hand fisted my hair and I opened my throat for him as he thrust deeper inside of me with long, deliberate strokes.
He sped up, faster and faster, and my eyes watered at the strain, but the rising feeling within me swelled like a growing tsunami.
Just when I thought he was about to come, he withdrew.
I collapsed on the floor, panting, as he stood over me, his cock twitching.
“You’re a mess, Val. My filthy, gorgeous mess. Get on the bed.”
His words shot straight between my legs, stoking my arousal. When I got on the bed, he flipped me to my stomach and pulled me up to my knees. Behind me, I heard the rip of foil and then he rubbed his rock-hard cock across my slick wetness. My legs quivered.
“What do you want, Val?”
He dragged his length back and forth, sending sparks flitting to every single one of my nerve endings. “Please,” was all I could manage.
He clicked his tongue. “Please what? Bend you over and fuck you like the dirty slut you are? Ram my cock into you until you’re ruined for anyone but me?”
His filthy words unleashed a whole new level of need. I pressed my ass against him, but he held me off. Wrapping a hand around my throat, he pulled me up so my back was flush against his chiseled torso.
“Tell me what you want,” he growled in my ear. “I want to hear you say it.”
He loved knowing I was dirty only for him, so I let him hear my darkest desires. “I want you to use me. Rip me apart and put me back together like only you can. Fuck me and prove to me I’m yours.”
“Fuck, Val.” I felt his smile against my neck and he sank his teeth in. “Now grab the headboard and scream for me.”
I did.
As he slammed inside of me, pleasure tore through me.
With each brutal stroke, I rammed back against him, urging him on as I surrendered to the feeling of him inside me, all parts of me splayed open before him.
He reached to rub my clit as he thrust faster and harder, charging us both toward the edge.
I’d never felt so thoroughly untethered before.
Every man paled in comparison to Nolan Keller.
He plucked at every part of my body and soul, strumming it into a symphony of sensation.
When I let out a cry, he grabbed my hair and yanked my head back. “Should I let you come, baby?”
He slowed his pace so I could feel every hard inch of him as he slid in and out.
It was the best kind of torture, him teasing my clit, my pussy leaking all over us.
I couldn’t think, couldn’t speak. My entire body was a live wire, every touch sending a new wave of pleasure to uncharted corners.
He continued his slow, methodical pumps, his cock growing harder as I clenched around him.
“Please,” I panted.
At my words, he gripped my hips and pounded into me with a newfound fervor.
My pleasure climbed higher and higher, and my climax was just within reach when he leaned forward and said in my ear, “Come for me, Valeria.” Then he pressed on my clit and rammed inside of me at the same time, and I was finished.
My orgasm rocked through me, exploding behind my eyes like a thousand stars.
I cried out as I rode wave after wave of pleasure, Nolan keeping his unrelenting pace.
He smacked my ass, hard, and I moaned into the sheets, fucking back into him.
More, more, more.
“My perfect little whore,” he said. His breaths turned ragged and he dragged my hips back into him, again and again, until I felt him tense and cry out as he found his release, clutching me against him.
We collapsed on the bed, tangled together all the way down to our toes. His skin was hot and slick against mine as he pulled my back flush against his chest.
“That was…” I said, unable to string a coherent thought together.
“It was,” he agreed. His breath tickled the hairs on my neck and I shifted closer to him, relishing in how our bodies fit together.
He groaned in my ear. “Stop wiggling like that or I’ll take you again.”
“That’s kind of what I was hoping for.”
His growing arousal hardened against my ass and I arched my back, pressing my breasts into his waiting hands.
After he put on another condom, he slid inside me with agonizing slowness.
This time, he fucked me sensually, deliberately, each touch lengthened and loaded to draw out my pleasure.
With each languorous stroke, I unraveled further in his hands until I came apart, crying out his name.
Nolan sped up his pace, clutching me to his chest, and followed me into my pleasure.
Panting and sweat-slicked, we curved into each other, finally sated—for now.
“You’re so beautiful, Val,” he said, planting a kiss on my forehead and stroking my hair. I sighed, content to stay in his arms forever.
But it only took a few seconds before my practical mind took over.
This can’t last forever.
But I’ll enjoy it while I can.