Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
STELLA
I jerked my head off the pillow as my alarm blared. Daylight seeped through the windows, leading me to panic for a moment that I’d overslept before I remembered that it was Sunday, Lee’s sleepy groan reminding me that I hadn’t slept alone.
My eyes burst back open, wide awake now for a whole other reason.
I ran my fingers over my lips, still sensitive and tingling from Lee’s scorching kisses. My lifelong dream had been to wake up next to Lee, to hear him say all those wonderful things he’d told me last night.
That he wanted me. More than anything.
I covered my face with my hands, smoothing them over my cheeks to check the injuries I’d forgotten about.
A small, rough scab had formed over the scrape on my cheek, but it wasn’t as sore.
The bump on my temple had shrunk, only painful if I pressed into it.
I wasn’t dizzy or nauseated when I lifted my head off the pillow, like the ER doctor had told me to watch out for when I woke up in the morning.
I still had to wait it out for another couple of days, but for the most part, I’d come out unscathed and lucky.
Lee grumbled behind me, cinching his arm around my waist to pull me closer. He was warm and hard—everywhere. I rubbed against the poke at my back, Lee’s hold tightening as he moaned into the pillow.
“Good morning. How’s your head?” he murmured, dragging his lips across my shoulder.
“Better. I’m not light-headed or queasy, so I think I’m okay.”
I craned my neck to Lee, another layer of stubble coating his cheeks, his short, dark hair sticking up. Lee had stayed over at our house a couple of times when we were younger, but he’d always been up with my brother for hours before I’d climbed out of bed to join them in our kitchen.
Well, I had run to the bathroom to fix myself up a little, then joined them.
This morning, I was treated to Lee’s sleepy smile and hooded gaze, along with the sexy rasp of his voice, pieces of him I’d never seen or thought I’d get. Waking up next to him felt deliciously intimate, even if he’d stopped us from taking things past kissing last night.
I reached under the sheets to pinch the back of my arm. I flinched, hissing at the instant pain.
I’ll be damned. This is all real.
“What’s wrong?” Lee stiffened behind me and sat up. “Why did you jump like that?”
I chuckled, shifting toward Lee.
“Double-checking that I wasn’t dreaming.” I lifted my arm to show him the tiny red welt. “It hurt and I’m still awake, so I guess this is real.”
Lee shut his eyes and laughed.
“Don’t scare me like that. And damn right, it’s real.” Lee’s gaze roamed over my body, a feral gleam in his eyes before he lay back down and yanked me closer. “Sure you’re feeling okay?”
How did I define okay? I was feeling too much. A palpable joy stirred in my belly along with a nagging undercurrent of doubt.
I’d woken tangled up with the man of my dreams, yet I wanted to jump out of bed and hide.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t believed him or that I hadn’t seen this coming. Maybe not exactly this, but the tension between us was obvious enough that something had been about to happen. The only way I’d been able to stay friends with Lee was to accept that he wasn’t for me, not like that.
To have him choose me? To race across a baseball field because he couldn’t handle losing me? The thought made me sneak my hand under the sheet to squeeze the raw skin under my arm again to make sure that it still hurt and that I wasn’t in some dream-altered reality.
“You’re beautiful in the morning.” Lee stroked his fingers through my hair.
“Right,” I said on a laugh. “I have a scrape across my cheek and a bruise on the side of my head. I must look like I got into a fight. Although a ball hurts less than a fist.”
I rubbed my nose on instinct. It had healed perfectly, according to the doctor I’d seen when I’d gotten to New York, but I still felt for a bump across the bridge of my nose whenever I’d think of it.
Lee’s jaw was tight as he cupped my cheek.
“If he ever comes near you again, I’ll show him what damage a fist can do.”
“Easy, tough guy.” I chuckled, running my fingers through his messy hair. “What I’m saying is, I’m fine. I won’t run a marathon or anything, but I’m okay to function and take care of Bennie when you leave.”
I turned to get off the bed, afraid I’d throw myself at him again or beg like I had before we’d gone to sleep. He pulled me back on the bed right before my feet touched the floor.
“You need better pajamas,” Lee said, his voice low and dangerous while he traced the strap of my tank top. “This top hangs off you. I bet if I pull just a little…” he said, winding the string around his finger.
“Like this?” I pulled the strap out of Lee’s hold and dragged it toward my elbow.
I settled on my back as my breasts spilled out.
The throb between my legs kept time with the heartbeat blasting in my ears.
I’d wanted this so much, for so long, and I’d never in a million years thought I’d ever be half naked under Lee, offering him everything I never expected him to want from me.
It was as amazing as it was terrifying.
“Fuck, Stella,” he growled, his eyes tracking up and down my body, singeing my skin in their path. “So damn beautiful.”
He cupped my breast, tracing one nipple with his thumb while he sucked the other into his mouth.
The scrape of his beard combined with the wet warmth of his mouth—and that this was Lee, for fuck’s sake—had my body bowing off the bed as heat pooled between my legs.
“I thought…doctor’s orders were to take it easy. Ahh, right there…”
Lee moved his mouth to my other breast while he slipped his hand between my legs.
“Can I touch you? I need to touch you.”
Lee’s eyes were almost black when they met mine, his hand grazing the edge of my panties.
“Are you kidding me right now?” I grabbed his wrist and shoved it the rest of the way.
“You’re soaked. Jesus, Stella,” Lee said, tracing the swollen bump that had its own heartbeat. “I still shouldn’t, but fuck,” he growled into the crook of my shoulder before dragging his tongue up my throat, crashing his lips into mine.
“Yes, you absolutely should.” I spread my legs wider, my hips bucking off the bed while I chased the pattern of Lee’s fingers.
It wasn’t the first time I’d been touched, but my body had never ignited like this before, my mind scrambling as it couldn’t handle both how good this was and whose fingers were about to push me over a cliff I’d probably never come back from.
And this was only his hand. His cock would probably kill me.
“You like this, sweetheart? Making a mess all over my fingers?”
Sweet Jesus. He had a filthy mouth on top of everything else? I had no hope of surviving this man.
Not that I ever had.
“Come on, baby. Come all over my hand like a good girl.”
My orgasm was sharp, cutting through me while I gasped into Lee’s mouth, somehow remembering we weren’t alone in this house, despite the world beginning and ending with Lee at the moment.
Or always.
I shook against his chest as I came down, the euphoria edged with dread.
I’d been ruined by Lee a long time ago, but I was on my way to being destroyed. This was why I’d never been devastated when my relationships ended. Sad, sure, and always disappointed at another failure. But I’d never given anyone the power to truly break my heart because I didn’t have one.
I’d given it away when I was sixteen.
“As many times as I pictured that,” Lee said, raining kisses over my face and down my neck, “I wasn’t prepared. Shit, Stell, you’re a fucking goddess.”
I burst out laughing, covering my face with my hands and taking steady breaths to slow my racing pulse.
“You’re okay?” Lee asked, hovering over me while he stroked my cheek, peering down at me as if I were something precious and fragile. All that adoration in his gaze made my heart swell and seize.
“My head is spinning, but in a good way, I promise,” I said, my words scratchy as I let my hands drift down his chest and slip under his T-shirt. His skin was warm and smooth as my fingertips traveled up his torso.
“Lose the shirt, Doc,” I said, smoothing my hands up his back until he peeled his T-shirt over his head.
“Wow,” I breathed out, skimming my fingers down his chest and over the trail of hair dusting his abs and disappearing into his boxers. I couldn’t take my eyes off him, now that I had given myself permission to look. “Can I touch you?”
Lee dropped his chin to his chest and groaned.
“I won’t last if you touch me. I’m barely hanging on… Shit, just like that.”
I palmed him where he tented his shorts, hard and thick while I slipped my hand under the waistband. I peeked down as I wrapped my fingers around him, his cock growing harder in my hand as I glided it up and down.
“Stella,” he panted, grabbing the back of my head to crash his lips against mine, moaning into my mouth as I moved faster. “I want to sink inside you so bad, I can’t even breathe.”
“You can,” I said, not surprised when he shook his head. “I’m fine—”
“It’s not that. I’m going… Pull back,” he gritted out, his body tensing as he pushed his hands into the mattress to sit up. I wrapped my arm around his waist, shaking my head when his hooded eyes met mine.
“No.” I shook my head. “On me. Please.”
He twisted his hands in my hair, and a growl erupted from his throat as warmth spread between us and all over my bare chest. Pure exhilaration coursed through my veins, a complete satisfaction I’d never known washing over me.
This, I’d never done before. When a man had said pull back, that’s what I’d done without a second of hesitation. I’d never wanted to be covered in someone’s release and had never understood the appeal until now. My still-skeptical mind and heart yearned for all the proof I could get.
I glanced down at the mess between us. I wanted to feel it seep into my skin for another minute to make sure this was real.