21. Prince Charming
PRINCE CHARMING
CHELSEA
I’m blowing it. He’s going to kick me out any second now.
“I owe you a huge apology. And for the record, being with you is hardly slumming it.” I take a step forward on shaky legs. Close enough to reach out and touch him. He shoves his hands in his pockets, so I don’t.
The first time I saw him, he was lethal in leather, the second time, suave in a suit. Now he’s dressed like a frat boy in a backwards ballcap, a T-shirt, and sweatpants, and I can’t decide which version of him I like best.
The realization makes me try again.
If he kicks me out, it won’t be because I chickened out.
“You’re... not like I thought you’d be. I mean, you’re gorgeous, but I didn’t expect to actually like you.
” Wait, that sounded mean. Or slutty. Both?
“What I’m trying to say is that you’re the best thing I’ve ever…
” I swallow down the truth. Too soon. Pull back.
“The time we’ve spent together has been awesome.
And…” Sexy? Should I say sexy? No, that's dumb. “Awesome.”
Shit. Also dumb.
Despite that, he doesn’t smirk or make fun of me. Something intangible shifts, and the air around us gets thin. I have to breathe harder to get enough oxygen.
“I like who I am when I’m with you. So, if you don’t feel the same, then I guess... I mean, tell me now, but—”
His hands are out of his pockets and pulling me close before I have to try again, and I welcome his mouth on mine, partly because it keeps me from talking, but mostly because I missed him.
Missed kissing him, touching him. Being in his arms is this weird combination of freedom and safety that I’ve started to crave without even realizing it. It makes me act like someone completely different, yet I’ve never felt more myself.
Something in my chest busts open, spewing relief and lust, and some other more confusing emotions I’ll worry about later. Right now, I just want the giddy high of his mouth on mine, and his skin under my questing fingers.
We stumble down the hall, shedding clothes and bumping into walls in our attempts to walk and make out at the same time.
When we finally get to his bed, we’re both down to our underwear. Scratch that. I reach up and tug his cap off, revealing his dark tousled curls. Now we’re wearing nothing but our underwear. I giggle as Brett picks me up and tosses me onto the bed before belly flopping onto the mattress beside me.
He turns his head, dropping kisses along my arm, and my muscles go rigid with need. I sit up.
“Turn over,” I order, and Brett obliges me, rolling onto his back.
I crawl over top of him, bending my head to drop open-mouthed kisses to his lips, his jaw, his Adam’s apple.
“Jesus, I missed you,” he groans as I nip the crook of his neck before my tongue darts out to ease the sting.
“Okay, we need a condom, STAT.” Brett makes a move to sit up, but I place my palm against his chest, holding him still.
“But I’m still playing,” I tease, dropping kisses against his collar bone, even as his breath picks up. He wants me. And it turns me on so much to know it.
“We’ll play later,” he promises, voice tight with need. “Right now, I need to be inside you.” He swipes a thumb between my legs, pressing the soaked black silk of my new underwear against me. I bite my lip at the exquisite sensation, trying not to moan.
I fail.
“Condom, it is. I’ll get it,” I volunteer, deciding magnanimously that it’s only fair that he gets to call some of the shots of our makeup sex tonight. And it’s important to be fair.
He points to the end table closest to the wall.
I lean over, flattening myself onto my stomach so I can reach the handle and tug the drawer open. But when I go to grab a foil packet, something stays my hand.
“You’re killing me here, you know that, right?” The mattress shifts behind me, and Brett’s fingers trace the curve of my ass. I shiver at the resulting goosebumps but I can’t tear my attention away from my discovery.
“You kept it?” I ask softly, bypassing the condoms and grabbing the familiar red lace, holding it up. At the sight of my bra, Brett gives an embarrassed wince. He pushes himself up to a sitting position, his back against the headboard.
“Yeah.”
I sit back on my heels, idly rubbing my thumb against the lacy cup. The realization that our first night together had meant enough to him to take it, just like I’d wanted him to, makes my heart clench. I like knowing he wanted a souvenir of the woman from the bar. That she was worth remembering.
“I know it’s stupid, but you were gone when I woke up, and I thought maybe it was some kind of clue to finding you again.”
He wanted to see me again.
Warmth suffuses my chest, but I hide the sappy emotions with a Cheshire grin. “So you’re saying that if we hadn’t run into each other at the gala the next night, you were going to go full Prince Charming and track me down by scouring all of Missoula for the boobs that fit this bra?”
He grabs my wrist and tugs me over to straddle his lap. His hands settle on my hips.
“Princing isn’t all fun and games like everyone thinks,” he tells me, plucking the bra from my fingers and tossing it in the general direction of the drawer. “It’s a lot of work. Very serious business.”
His palms trek upward, making me tremble.
“Come to think of it, I should probably do a thorough inspection of your boobs right now, make sure you’re the woman I’ve been looking for, and you haven’t been pulling a fast one on me this whole time.”
My bra goes slack, and I let the straps slide down my arms before I remove it.
He pulls me forward by my ribcage and nuzzles my right breast. The soft kisses bring my hands to his shoulders, and when he finally opens his mouth over my nipple, I let my head fall back, savoring the sweet wet heat of his tongue.
“Ha! You just want a happy ending,” I accuse breathlessly, sliding my hips forward to press myself against his erection. His groan reverberates against my sensitive flesh before he pulls away.
“So bad,” he agrees. His left hand slides up to cup my other breast, his thumb teasing its tip into a hard peak, sending heat coiling through me. “But I promise to give you multiple happy endings first.”
“Sounds like my kind of fairy tale.”
I laugh as he topples us sideways, so we’re horizontal across the width of the mattress as he stretches out over top of me to grab a condom. I run my fingertips over his chest, amazed that I get to touch him like this whenever I want.
“You’re doing it again,” he warns, rolling onto his side so he can remove his boxer briefs and suit up.
“Doing what?” I ask, shimmying out of my panties.
“Being cute-sexy.”
I widen my eyes in sham horror. “Oh no!”
“You know I can’t resist you when you giggle.” Brett shifts back on top of me, and the press of his erection against my belly makes me squirm. Lust invades my blood and loosens my limbs.
“Quick, save us.” I wrap my arms around his neck. The pace of his breath picks up, mimicking mine. “Say something filthy.”
“I want to fuck you so slow and deep that you can feel my cock in the back of your throat.”
My lips round into an O of delight as he slides inside me. I relish the pressure as my body adjusts to his size.
“Too filthy?” he asks, pressing his hips forward.
I shake my head, fingernails scoring his back as I draw my knees up. The slight shift in position brings him even deeper, and his grunt of pleasure makes the blood race in my veins.
“Just right,” I assure him, like I’m the Goldilocks of dirty talk.
He starts to move with hard, purposeful thrusts that have me writhing beneath him, desperate for the pleasure his body promises with every stroke of his cock.
Closing my eyes, I concentrate on the delicious build of pressure at the apex of my thighs, the rasp of his breath against my neck as his big powerful body drives into me, winding me up, pushing me closer and closer to bliss.
“Hey, Chels?”
My name on his lips stirs me from the drugging pleasure that’s invaded my body, and I do my best to surface from the languid spell he’s cast over me. “Mmm-hmmm?”
The rock of his hips slows, stops, his cock buried deep inside me.
“Did you forget the bra, or did you leave it for me?”
My eyes pop open in surprise and I look up at him. Brett’s face is hard with passion, jaw tight, his attention taut and focused. On me. I reach up to push a wayward curl from his forehead. “I left it for you.”
He claims my mouth in the softest kiss, and his hips withdraw almost completely before plunging hard and deep. My body clenches sharply at the twin sensations, startling a gasp from me as I tumble down the rabbit hole and into my first happy ending of the night.