Chapter 13
ELLORA
By the third song, our dancing had stopped being respectable. If Patrick Swayze himself had walked in, he’d have blushed and told us to tone it down. Holden’s hand was in the small of my back, his thumb tracing lazy circles that made it very hard to remember this was supposed to be fake.
Every step brought us closer until there was barely an inch between us, my heart thudding against his chest. I tilted my head up, my lips brushing the edge of his jaw. “You know, we’re in a hotel.”
His eyes darkened, amusement and heat blending together. I had no idea why I’d just said that. Actually, I did know. I just wasn’t sure I would ever have the ovaries to admit it out loud.
Holden didn’t need me to. “Are you suggesting we book a room?”
“I’m just saying that it’s convenient,” I said, feigning nonchalance, but my voice was breathless and every nerve ending I possessed was on high alert. “Use the information or don’t.”
For a moment, he just looked at me, but it was the kind of look that made my knees question their structural integrity. Then he smiled a slow, devastating smile. “Let’s find out just how convenient, shall we? I’m always inclined to use the information I have at my disposal.”
We slipped away from the ballroom, both of us laughing under our breath like co-conspirators. In the elevator, I typed out a quick text to Bree, my heart hammering in my throat, but my mind made up.
Me: Spending the night. Don’t wait up.
Her reply came almost instantly, a string of heart eyes, fire emojis, and what I suspected was a dancing avocado.
I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to know what that one was about, but it didn’t matter.
The point was that she was now able to settle in for the night, probably gleeful about having been right in the first place.
Holden glanced at my phone and chuckled. “Do I even want to know?”
“Probably not.”
The elevator doors slid open with a chime and we stepped into the hushed corridor. The soft carpet swallowed the sound of our footsteps. He reached for my hand, his fingers warm against mine, and I didn’t pull away.
Whatever this night turned into, it felt like a line we were both ready to cross. We were barely inside the suite he’d just gotten us when his mouth was on mine, one hand sliding into my hair while the other gripped my hip.
I moaned into his mouth, fusing my body to his.
The next few minutes were a blur of hands and breath, both of us wrestling with buttons and zippers until there was nothing left between us.
My knees brushed against the mattress just as my bra hit the floor.
Holden’s fingers were hot and possessive on my bare ribs.
Turning us around, he sat down on the bed and lifted me to his lap so I was straddling him. His hands shot into my hair. His lips curled into a wickedly sexy smile and he guided his mouth to mine. Our lips met in another heated kiss. His tongue danced with mine.
Every stroke of it sent bursts of pleasure through me, reminding me that even though there was a lot of bad stuff in my life right now, I could still feel good. I ground against him, moaning as his erection rubbed against my core, sliding through the wet heat in a way that was driving me crazy.
Evidently, I wasn’t the only one. As our hips rocked, his strong arms circled my waist and lifted me again, flipping me over until my back landed against the mattress. He moved with me like we were connected. His delicious weight pressed me deeper into the bed as he settled on top of me.
Without wasting any time, his lips were back on mine, his kisses even deeper, more passionate than before. Surrendering to them completely, I rolled my hips and turned off my brain, giving over to the chemistry that had been humming between us all night.
Holden swallowed my groans as I rubbed against him, finally getting the friction I’d been needing between my legs since our very first dance. He kissed me with his entire body. Low sounds escaped from the back of his throat.
His lips felt like heaven on mine, soft but determined. Combined with those sounds, the raw passion of him drove me so close to the edge that it should’ve been embarrassing, but it wasn’t. His hips rocked in a rhythm as wild as my own, his need as obvious and uninhibited as mine.
The man was too sexy for his own good. His touches set me on fire like he’d cast a spell on me.
My pussy was drenched. My muscles were tightening in anticipation of having him inside me.
At the thought, I suddenly realized that our one night together might come to a very abrupt end and I wrenched my mouth away from his.
His eyelids were at half-mast, his expression tight. Those blue eyes, silvery in the moonlight streaming in through the windows, met mine. “What’s wrong?”
“Have you got a condom?” I asked breathlessly. “Please tell me you have a condom.”
Holden seemed to be trying to maintain the same level of control he always exuded, but the look in his eyes was practically screaming.
“I do, but if I get it right now, this is all going to be over in about two minutes.” He rocked his hips and pleasure streaked through me. “Are you sure that’s what you want?”
“No,” I breathed, unable to stop myself from pushing my hips closer to his, sparks flying through me at the heat of his shaft against my clit.
He grunted like he could feel my pleasure in his own body, his hips twitching. “Shit, Ella.”
“I know,” I whispered, grinding faster. His breathing grew as ragged as mine. His kiss was bruising when he brought his mouth back to mine.
The hard length of him was flaming hot against my core, but he rolled off me. Silvery eyes pinned me in place as he fitted himself against my side. He moved one of his hands up slowly, brushing my cheek with the backs of his fingers before bringing his mouth to mine again.
This kiss was different again, gentle but insistent.
I felt his muscles bunch and release as we kissed, his body as tightly coiled as my own.
I almost asked him about the condom again, but then the flat of his palm was sliding down the length of my stomach and my breath caught, everything in me burning for him to touch me there.
My legs parted further on instinct and he let out an approving sound that was somewhere between a moan and a grunt. All the while, his hand slid farther down, so slowly that it was a complete tease before his fingers finally hit the part of me that needed him most.
One of the other students in my class had told me that professionally, everything he touched turned to gold. It turned out that he had that kind of touch in bed as well, his fingers working absolute magic in a way I’d never managed myself.
He stroked me in all the right ways until I was breathless and panting, gasping every time he dipped his fingertips into me and moaning when he withdrew them again.
Meanwhile, his thumb was on my clit, the pressure of it not quite enough to get me there, but more than enough to drive me completely nuts.
I felt like I was throbbing, so swollen that my blood was thrumming in my ears.
“Holden, please,” I begged, not above throwing myself on my knees at his feet if that was what he wanted.
He kept winding me tighter and tighter until it felt like I was about to lose my mind. I’d never been so turned on before that I’d made the kinds of sounds I was making right now, but these keening moans kept tearing out of me as my hips bucked and my back arched.
He finally decided to take mercy on me. Kissing me hard, he slid two fingers all the way into me and pressed his thumb down on my clit.
Pleasure erupted somewhere near my spine.
Writhing, I rode his hand. He was pulling on the strings of knots he’d tied me into, and if he didn’t stop, I was going to—
“Come for me, Ella,” he murmured into our kisses. “Let go for me, baby.”
Powerless to resist the command issued in a much rougher tone than I’d ever heard from him, I let go.
Every move he’d made since that dance floor had been bringing me closer and closer to the precipice, and though I had never thought I would be able to come on command, that was exactly what happened.
Pleasure crashed into me. The orgasm washed over me from the center of my being to the crown of my head and the tips of my toes.
It ripped me apart. The only things keeping me tethered to this plane of existence were the weight of his arm on my hip and the gentle brushes of his lips against my shoulder.
By the time it subsided, I wasn’t sure my bones had made it through in one piece. I felt like a puddle of jelly, but I managed to turn my head so I could look at him. What I saw surprised me. The muscles in his throat worked and his eyes narrowed to slits.
His hips were moving slightly against my thigh, like he couldn’t help himself, and when I glanced down, I realized he was glistening with wetness all his own. A soft moan slipped out of me and I reached for him, his need for release suddenly coursing through me as if it were my own.
“Ella, no.” His voice was ragged and breathy, but he held my gaze as steadily as ever. “Not until you’re ready.”
Understanding what he meant, I lifted myself up on my knees. My muscles were straining, my bones still missing, but I climbed off the bed and grabbed his pants. “Where’s the condom?”
“Wallet,” he ground out, watching me with hungry eyes and looking like he was struggling to keep still.
I felt around his pockets until I found what I was looking for. Sliding my fingers into the only slot big enough for protection, I retrieved a foil package and handed it to him as I climbed back onto the bed.
“I’m ready now.” My nipples were hard, already desperate to be touched. I swung my leg over his hips and lined myself up over his cock. “Are you?”
Holden quickly sheathed himself with the condom. Then he wrapped his fist around the base of his shaft. With his other hand on my hip, he positioned me above his throbbing heat and lifted his head to capture my mouth for another searing kiss.
Despite the spectacular orgasm I’d just had, I was so ready again I was aching.
He moved with agonizing slowness as he guided me down onto him.
As he pushed inside, the most blissful sensations I’d ever felt rocketed through me.
Not even the amazing things his fingers had just done to me could compare to what this felt like.
It was completely mind-blowing the way he filled me, sliding against every sensitive, swollen part of me as if we’d been made to fit together. He started moving. A muffled scream escaped me and I clamped my mouth shut. My brow furrowed as my teeth sank into my lips.
Holden’s fingers were like vises on my hips, like he was trying to find something to ground him. My fingernails dug into his shoulder. He lifted his head and sucked one of my nipples into his mouth, and I whimpered, so utterly consumed by him that I could hardly breathe anymore.
I saw the same intensity I was feeling reflected back at me from his eyes, and neither of us stopped staring at each other as he moved inside me.
Technically, since I was on top, I would have expected to be setting the pace, but Holden was still totally in control and it felt too good to try to take it back.
Moans spilled from my lips and I was powerless to stop them, my body shaking as another orgasm started building deep inside. I exploded all over his cock when all that new tension released, my walls constricting until it felt like I was milking him dry.
My vision swam, but I forced myself to look at him when he tensed beneath me, his hips jerking and his handsome face contorted like he was in blissful agony. “Fuck, yes. Ella. Yes!”
As he followed me into that place of pure euphoria, he groaned loudly, his thighs trembling, but his gaze never left mine. Breathing heavily in the aftermath, I collapsed on his chest and wondered how any other man was ever going to come even close to that, let alone beat it.