Chapter 22 #3
He’d called her that before, but it shocked her just how quickly that lightning bolt of arousal slammed into her.
It sent flickers of heat and electricity straight down to her toes and pinging in all the right…
or wrong… places. Babe, she’d started getting used to.
Only just, though. Baby, on the other hand…
with the way he said it, sounding strained, as if it was pure torture.
.. As if she were pure torture to him, and that knowledge did wicked things to her.
It lingered in her senses—tingled in a way that demanded relief.
“I think I do. I think I’ve always been in love with you, and it took this experiment of ours for me to do something about it,” she admitted, the words continuing to fall so easily from her lips.
She clenched her lower lip between her teeth, holding back whatever else threatened to spill from her.
It felt like they stood on the brink of something beautiful, something extraordinary. All she wanted was to tip them over the edge into paradise.
Charlie’s eyes widened, her second statement settling between them more than the first. The expanse of his blue eyes blown out into a mere river of blue around the darkness swallowing them.
A warmth emanated from the depths, a tenderness that threatened to overwhelm him, but there was also a separate heat pulsing through to the surface.
One that more accurately reflected the movement of his hips against hers.
She felt the groan rumble through his chest, vibrating straight into her. “You’re gonna be the death of me, Sam.”
So far, during their time together, Charlie had been the one to lead. He’d been the one to flirt first, the one to kiss her first, the one to touch her the way she always dreamed he would.
This time, it was her turn.
She grabbed Charlie’s face and dragged it down to hers, sealing their lips together. Charlie froze against her for a fraction of a second before clenching her body in his hands, fingers digging into her skin.
The music hammered around them, and other partygoers didn’t seem phased by their embrace, seemingly lost in their own worlds as well.
It took mere seconds for Charlie to overtake her, taking control as her body yielded to him. The overwhelming pull to get even closer than they already were awoke a desperate hunger in her gut, erupting in a fiery blaze.
Charlie’s hands trailed down her body and found a comfortable resting spot on the curve of her ass, holding her body snugly against his.
Sam held on for dear life, completely lost to whatever had taken hold of her body.
They had kissed before, so the act wasn’t new, but this feeling certainly was.
It was the first time that she felt like he was kissing her because he wanted to.
Not because of their arrangement but because he wanted her.
Genuinely, truly, passionately, wanted her.
Charlie managed to lift her feet off the ground, holding onto her so that she felt as if she were floating on a cloud.
Who knew? Maybe she was—maybe she was floating in this little bubble they had created together.
It wasn’t until she felt a wall pressing firmly against her back that she realized that they had stepped out of the crowd and to a more secluded back corner of the bar.
Unsure how he’d manage to navigate the crowd, her body demanded her full attention once more as her legs instinctively wrapped around his waist, holding on for dear life.
Her head rolled back, desperate for air, as if it had been sucked from her lungs, but she found no escape. Charlie’s lips ghosted along the line leading up to her throat, pressing hungry and yet surprisingly gentle kisses as he moved upwards.
Oh shit, she really liked that, feeling her core throbbing tortuously between her legs.
Lost to the sensations swimming through her, something hard and hot began to press urgently against her, only adding further fuel to the fire. She let loose the sound trapped in her throat and felt herself tense.
It was probably why she barely registered the feeling of his arms retracting from her, only to snatch both of her wrists with one large hand from where they had been resting. With one quick motion, he shoved them upward and pinned her wrists against the wall above her head, held down with his hand.
Good God, Sam feared she had truly died and gone to heaven. A sense of urgency drove her as she gasped into his mouth, with him immediately swallowing the sound by crushing her lips to his once more.
“Touch me,” she whispered into his mouth. “Please.”
Charlie wrenched his lips from hers and brought them to her neck, finding and latching onto a spot that had her toes curling.
Teasing it with his lips and tongue. It forced her hips to grind against his involuntarily, her clit desperately seeking relief.
The hard length of him straining against his jeans provided just the right friction as she moved her hips against his once more.
“Fuck, baby,” Charlie ground out hoarsely, the groan in his voice like liquid heat, and she wanted more. She wanted more of that breathless, husky quality to his voice. The fire in his eyes scorched her before capturing her lips again.
It felt so incredible that Sam wasn’t sure whether the butterflies swirling in her gut would explode.
Well… it wasn’t the butterflies that were swirling around in there as a sudden, violent stomach cramp forced Sam to tap rapidly against Charlie’s shoulder.
As if sensing the sudden panic in her, Charlie released her just in time for Sam to make a beeline to the nearest trashcan and violently vomit the contents of her stomach into it.
Her hair was swept back from her face, whether by her own hands or Charlie’s, she couldn’t tell. It had been far too long since she’d last gotten drunk, and her stomach protested vehemently against the string of numerous cocktails that she had consumed over the course of the night.
Once her stomach finally relented, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand—trying to ignore the sour taste in her mouth as she took in a deep breath.
When she turned, she saw that it had, in fact, been Charlie holding back her hair. The raging inferno that had been in his eyes now replaced with worry and concern.
“Time to go,” he stated, bending over and catching her just behind the knees so that he scooped her into his arms.
She was still a bit delirious at what had just happened, the feeling of his bruising lips on her still lingering. Her normally racing mind seemed focused on the feelings that had been dangerously stirred to life inside her.
She wanted to continue. She didn’t want to ever stop kissing Charlie. In fact, she was determined to find exactly what his mouth could do to her in other ways.
The heat radiating from her instantly chilled, however, as they exited the building and spilled out into the cold night’s air, prickling goosebumps on her skin.
Charlie lowered her to the ground gently, helping her to steady her feet before releasing her altogether. Something in his eyes pulled her from the dreamlike state she’d been in and into the real world.
“I’ll call us a cab,” he said quickly, turning away and pulling out his phone before she could respond. Hearing the distance in his words, and seeing the physical distance he now put between them, Sam sobered. Her bubble finally burst.
What had she just done?