CHAPTER 4
FIVE MONTHS AGO
AVERY
As Bridger leads me down the hallway to the room he’s gotten for us, my stomach flips. I know what is about to happen and I’m craving it. There’s something about this man, something I can’t even allow myself to analyze. Because it can never be more than just this one night.
I know it.
He knows it.
Meeting Bridger feels like it was always supposed to happen.
But that doesn’t mean my future will be any different from the one expected of me.
My father made his expectations known to me today.
While I might be willing to go out on a limb and spend a night out with Tasha, am I brave enough to defy my father?
If I did, everything I know, including the family I have, would be ripped away from me.
While I hate the idea of marrying Eric, I don’t feel like I have much of a choice. It’s been decided.
The only good thing is I have six months to come to terms with things. Hopefully, Eric won’t have any expectations for that time. The thought of getting to know him better makes my skin crawl.
He’s not a good man. The only positive thing I can say is that he’s a good lawyer. Unfortunately, it’s not a ringing endorsement of the man he is.
Not even a little bit.
And, really, it might be a stretch to say he’s a good lawyer. He wins a lot of his cases. The way he practices law makes it clear that his father, and mine, are his mentors. On more than one occasion I’ve heard him referred to as cutthroat, and when we’re talking about corporate law, it matters.
It’s not the type of law I wanted to practice when I was in law school. I wanted to help people who didn’t have the means to help themselves. But I knew it was never going to happen because my father would never allow it.
Now I don’t even practice law.
All of those thoughts and worries, the things clinging to me like sludge, fall away the moment I walk into the hotel room. Bridger closes the door and spins us, pressing me against the door and caging me in with his forearms on either side of my head.
He’s taller than I am and has to bend his knees slightly to meet my gaze. His eyes race between mine.
“You want this?” His voice is gruff and filled with need.
When my hands slide up his chest, he shudders.
I love the way he reacts to my touch. Even though his shoulders are broad, he’s not all hard muscular plains.
There’s a softness to his body and it makes me want to snuggle up to him.
But I also want to climb him like a tree and wrap my legs around him as he pounds into me.
“Yes,” I moan, my panting breaths making my chest heave and brush against his. “I want you, Bridger.”
I see the moment his control snaps. He swoops down and slams his mouth against mine. The kiss is all lips, teeth, and pure fucking fire. Pleasure washes over me and my skin heats while my toes curl. The grunt he lets out when I press my body against his is sexy as fuck.
How much he wants me is obvious from the ridge of his hard cock as it presses against my belly. The realization of what I do to him, how I affect him, has me gasping against his lips.
Bridger takes the opportunity and runs with it. His tongue invades my mouth and explores. There isn’t a corner of my mouth left untouched, and the way he groans as he tastes me has my pussy clenching around nothing.
I’ve been attracted to men before, but this is something new. The fire between us flared into life instantly and burns brighter and hotter than anything I’ve experienced with another person. Even now, with our bodies pressed against each other and his lips on mine, it feels like I can’t get enough.
Can’t get close enough.
Can’t savor the taste of whiskey on his tongue enough.
Can’t run my fingers through his hair enough.
When my touch moves from his hair, which is longer on top than the sides, and down over his jaw to his beard, something in Bridger snaps. His large hands reach around my body and grip my ass. He lifts me effortlessly and I gasp at the movement.
I cling to him as he moves us away from the door and toward the bed. I’ve never had a one-night stand before, not like this, and certainly not in a hotel room. It would make me feel a little dirty, but something about Bridger washes all my fears and doubts away.
He makes me feel seen and appreciated.
My back arches as he lays me out on the bed, my body wanting to keep in contact with his for as long as possible. The hard peaks of my nipples strain with the need to be teased and touched. Fuck, my entire body needs it; needs him.
“Bridger,” I moan, the sound wanton in a way I’ve never heard from myself before.
“I’ve got you, Avery,” he murmurs against my lips.
And I believe him.
When he sits back, his lips leaving mine and making me cold from the loss of him, his dark brown eyes rake over my body and take me in. I’m sure my hair looks wild, and my eyes look glassy. Can he see the way my heart is pounding from the pulse in my neck?
“Fuck,” he grunts, “you’re gorgeous.”
His hands move decisively and with purpose as he undresses me.
It feels like a systematic attack; one designed to tease me and make me want him more.
But I can see how on edge he is in the way he looks at me.
Bridger is barely holding himself together, and I feel powerful in a way I’ve never felt before.
The moment I’m naked on the bed, he stares between my thighs and swallows hard. “Damn it, Avery,” the cursed words are a low growl, “you have the prettiest pussy I’ve ever seen. Bare and glistening to show me how much you need me.”
Goosebumps break out across my skin and my pussy gets slicker with my arousal. It’s impossible to stop at this point. I’ve never been more turned on in my life.
Bridger gets off the bed slowly, his eyes never leave me and how I’m laid out for his enjoyment. Before he undresses, he reaches into his back pocket for his wallet and pulls out a condom and tosses it on the bed. Questions are on the tip of my tongue, but I swallow them down.
Now is not the time and I don’t really need to know. Not when he’s protecting us both and I should be grateful he even thought about it.
Wanting to feel him raw inside of me is a primal instinct, one which would only get me into trouble. For many reasons.
It’s better that he thought about a condom.
My eyes roam over him as he undresses until he’s standing naked in front of me, his cock looking uncomfortably hard.
The tip is purple and weeping pre-cum. I’m up and on my knees before I even realize what I’m doing.
My mouth waters and I let out a satisfied sigh when I slide my tongue over the crown to collect what he’s clearly offering me.
The grunt that comes from deep in his chest only makes me want to taste him more.
My lips wrap around his cock as I slide him into my mouth.
The way Bridger’s head falls back on his shoulders, as if it’s more pleasure than he can handle, makes me feel triumphant and the feeling buzzes along my skin.
My movements are slow as I bob up and down his length, not wanting to miss a single millimeter of his hard flesh. His eyebrows furrow together as he looks down at me, his brown eyes blazing with something that looks a lot like desperation.
His fingers tangle in the strands of my hair and he starts to move his hips in time with my mouth.
As I take him to the back of my throat, he pushes forward just a little bit, making me take more of him.
The entire time his eyes stay locked with mine, the only sound in the room are the wet sounds of my mouth and his ragged breathing.
I can feel the way his pleasure is climbing and pulling mine along even though he’s not touching me. My thighs are wet with my arousal, and I rub them together to try and give myself the friction my body is craving. It doesn’t help.
Bridger’s fingers tighten in my hair, and he lets out a growl as he pulls his hips away from my mouth, the sound telling me how much it physically pains him to do so.
He grips me around my waist when I sit back on my heels.
The way he moves me effortlessly makes me feel delicate and cherished, something I’ve never felt before.
It’s intoxicating.
It’s everything I’ve ever wanted.
It’s temporary.
Bridger’s much larger frame covers mine after he crawls up my body, his lips branding my skin with kisses as he moves until he’s hovering over me. My body jolts and my flesh hums while begging for more. I whimper as his lips find mine and he plunges his tongue into my mouth.
I feel him fumble around with something, his forearm next to my head as he balances himself above me. The next thing I feel is the head of his cock at my entrance. My legs come up and wrap around his hips and my heels press into his ass in the hope of encouraging him to fill me.
Everything inside of me craves him. The way I’ll stretch around him. The sounds he’ll make when he bottoms out inside of me. The look in his eyes as we come together.
“Avery,” he rasps, and it takes me a few moments to be able to focus on him instead of being lost to the lust swirling between us, “are you sure?”
“Please,” I mewl, “Bridger, I need you to fuck me.”
Our gazes stay locked as he thrusts inside of me. One moment I’m empty, so fucking empty. The next, the feeling of being full is overwhelming and makes me cry out.
“Fuck,” he grunts, “so fucking tight.”
His forehead comes down and rests against mine as he stills, buried balls deep inside of me. I’m not sure if he needs a moment or if he’s just giving me one, but either way I’m grateful for it.
But then the pressure, the need, becomes too much. I shift my hips and squeeze my pussy walls around his length.
“Move, Bridger,” I plead.
As he pulls his cock out of me, far too fucking slowly, he lets out a groan bordering on painfilled. “You feel too fucking good, Avery,” he growls as he sinks back into me.
I gasp at the way I stretch around him, my back arching and my hips straining to meet his. His hand wraps around my neck and he uses his grip and his thumb under my jaw to tilt my head back and hold me in place as our eyes lock. We share a breath and then he starts to really move.
The heat between us rises with every stroke of his cock inside of me. My thighs tighten around his hips as he starts to plunge inside of me faster while he pulls out slowly. The push and pull of it, the way his movements keep me on edge, has my eyes rolling back in my head.
“That’s it,” he praises. “Look at how good you take me.”
Before my heart can soar from his words, his warm mouth is wrapped around my nipple and sucking. My entire body bows off the bed, but he just fucks me harder, his movements becoming faster. Every time he fills me, he grinds against my clit and stars dance in front of my eyes.
When his teeth scrape along the hard, sensitive peak, I gasp, “Please, more.”
He growls around my flesh like a wild animal who has found the prey he’s been stalking for days instead of a man I just met.
There’s something there between us, it wraps around us, a tether which can’t be denied whether we want to or not.
A feeling coils in my belly as our pleasure builds to something I know I won’t be able to contain.
And I don’t want to.
The way Bridger is fucking me is different. It’s something I’ve never experienced before. It’s hot and sweaty. It’s messy and so damn surreal. But it also feels natural; right.
I wasn’t aware anything could feel like this.
My soul starts to spiral, our bodies moving together and climbing. Higher and higher. Every time our skin meets, the sound of it echoes through the room. I ride an edge I didn’t know existed.
Teetering.
Holding on by the skin of my teeth because letting go means flying when I’m not sure I have wings.
Then Bridger bites down on my nipple and the world stops with that bite of pain shooting along my nerves. And I crack.
Right down the center of me.
My pleasure shatters and all I can see is white and all I can hear is a strangled sound that comes from deep in Bridger’s chest. It rumbles and reverberates. It catches and cradles me.
He thrusts inside of me once, twice, on the third he pushes as deeply as he can and roars out my name. I feel it in my bones; the calling in the way his voice echoes in the room. As much as I try to hold on, my body goes limp.
But Bridger is right there.
He pulls out of me slowly and then I feel his body tense.
“Fuck,” he grunts lowly, an edge of panic in his voice. It should have me on high alert. I’m sure it would if I had any control over my limbs at the moment. “Shit, the fucking condom broke.”
My eyes shoot open and now I can’t fill my lungs for an entirely different reason as I notice the warmth I feel spreading through me. I thought it was the afterglow, but it’s not. It’s him, his cum.
I swallow hard and meet Bridger’s worried gaze. Thinking right now is almost impossible, but I force the words out, hoping they’re true. “It should be okay with, you know,” this is awkward as fuck, “where I am in my cycle.”
Bridger’s shoulders slump and I blink, the movement long; too long. The next time I blink, Bridger is gently cleaning between my thighs, his eyes still filled with concern.
And then I’m out for the rest of the night and feeling safer than I have in as long as I can remember.