Chapter 31
Christian
My alarm blares through the room, startling me out of my sleep. My arms around Lana shake her a bit when I have that little jump scare and she moans softly, stirring.
“Stop,” Lana groans. “Turn it off.”
I pull her in, kiss her bare shoulder, and I pull away to turn off the alarm so I can get ready for my day.
“No!” she protests, turning over and pulling back in by my arm. “No, stay.”
Lana pouts, her eyes still closed, and pulls me harder—enough for me to plop right back down onto the bed. “Come back.”
“Baby, I have an appointment.”
“No, you don’t,” she mumbles sleepily, climbing over me and lying right on my chest. It takes a minute before she’s snoring softly again.
I kiss the top of her head and run my fingers up and down the length of her spine. “Baby,” I whisper. “I have to go or I’ll be late.”
Lana shakes her head and rasps, “No.”
I chuckle softly. “Lana, baby—”
Pushing herself up, she moans and looks up at me with a pout. “I can make you stay.”
“Yeah?” I smirk.
She nods. “Yeah.”
“Lana…”
“It’s really that important?”
I hold her hips. “I’ve had this appointment for a month.”
Lana groans again and buries her face in the crook of my neck. “Come back to me,” she whispers and kisses my neck. “It’s our day off.”
“I know,” I breathe and she kisses just under my jaw. I wrap my hand around her jaw and bring her lips to mine, devouring her. Lana can easily make me stay.
She moans against my lips and my hands drift down her body to grip her ass. She takes it as motivation to roll her hips over my own, and my eyes roll back when I feel how wet she already is, her pussy sliding up and down against the underside of my cock.
Caught up, I sit up against the headboard and her lips find mine with no hesitation. I roll her hips over me and she presses down at the same time. “Lana…”
“Where are you going?” she asks on my lips.
“I have an appointment,” I moan when she lifts her hips and her hand wraps around me.
“With?” Lana lowers herself onto my dick, only enough for the tip nudge inside of her, nothing more.
I groan. “I can’t tell you yet.”
“Okay.” She stands on her knees and rolls off me.
I blink. “What?”
She sighs and sinks back into the bed, pulling the blanket over hers. “You can go.”
“What?”
“I’ll see you later,” she says, her voice low and sultry.
Such a fucking tease, I swear.
I turn her onto her back and she laughs, “What? You said you have an appointment. You don’t have time for me, so I’ll just do it on my own.”
I gape at her, and she only laughs again. “No you won’t.”
Lana smirks, arching her eyebrow. “No?”
“Fuck no,” I growl and roll her over me as I sit back again. “Come here, baby.”
Giggling, Lana wraps her arms around my neck and the first kiss she gives me is slow, sensual. She begins to grind her hips on my cock again, and her kisses deepen. They’re hungrier and sloppier, her teeth nipping at my lip and her lips sucking on my tongue.
“Fuck, Lana.”
She pushes up with her hands pressed against my chest and exhales heavily, giving me a proud little smile. She reaches between us, lining me up with her entrance, and she lowers herself onto me entirely.
“Christian,” she gasps when I’m buried to the hilt.
I growl faintly with my hands gripping her back side to gain some control. Her mouth falls open and freezes into an O. Lana breathes heavily, adjusting and pulsing around me, and she begins to roll her hips slowly.
Every time she’s on top, I usually let her move at her own pace. Lana on top means she wants control—over me, over her pleasure. And I fucking love it. My head falls back and thuds against the headboard, my hands dripping her ass so tightly, her flesh swells between my fingers.
“Oh god,” she whimpers, moving faster as I stare between us.
Her hands pressing down into my chest come to my face, picking up my head and forcing me to stare into her. My mouth falls open and I lose myself in her—in the swirling caramel of her eyes.
“I love you,” Lana moans, her index finger tracing my jaw as she bounces on my lap.
I cup her breasts with my hands, holding them up to my mouth. I lick her left nipple first—sucking, biting, and swirling my tongue. And move onto the next, her head falling back and the ends of her hair tickling my thighs.
Her nails dig into my shoulders and she moans louder, bouncing harder and faster.
“Fuck, Lana,” I growl around her nipple. “I love when you use me like this.”
“You feel so good, Christian,” she moans. “Ahhh…”
My eyes roll back and she moans, loudly, her nails breaking through my skin. I hope she leaves her mark in half moons that’ll scar.
“Christian,” she moans, grinding her hips rougher than before. “Christian.”
“Yes,” I hiss. “Fuck, baby, make yourself come on me.”
Her pussy clenches around me even tighter than before and her breathing grows sporadic. “Christian, I’m…I’m coming.”
My thumb moves to her clit and my lips wrap around her nipple, and I can feel the way it hits her a thousand times harder just from that extra stimulation.
“Fuck me,” she whispers against my lips.
In a second, I flip us and Lana is on her back. Now it is hard and fast, loud moaning and groaning fill the room and her nails are scratching hard into my back, surely leaving red, bloody trails. Fuck, I really hope they scar.
Lana clenches around me, her legs tightening at my waist, and my hips jerk erratically when I feel my own pleasure mounting higher.
“Christian,” she moans in my ear, and I explode into splintered pieces that all belong to her.
My head falls into the crook of her neck and we’re panting in our bliss. “I really do have an appointment.”
Lana huffs. “That’s okay, I already got what I wanted.”
I groan and tickle her neck with my stubble.
“No! Stop!” Lana laughs, wiggling under my body. “Christian!”
I laugh and pepper kisses everywhere I can reach. “I’ll meet you at the shop for lunch.”
Lana pouts. “Fine.”
I smile. She doesn’t know anything and she doesn’t seem to suspect. This surprise is perfect.
Lana and I left the house together, in separate cars and going to different destinations. She went to her bookstore cafe, the place she dreamed about having, and I came to the house to set up the new furniture I ordered for her dream lake house.
“Shouldn’t you be waiting for Lana,” Rowan grunts, lifting the new L-Shaped couch big enough for a family of ten, “before you furnish a house she knows nothing about.”
Another grunt, but from Julian. “She could hate this fucking couch.”
I roll my eyes and cautiously back into the family room I bought it for, the one that has the fireplace. It makes it homier. “She’s going to love this couch,” I groan, trying to keep a steady grip. “I’m not picking things she hates.”
The three of us set it down slowly and exhale a heavy breath once it’s finally on the floor. “Let me guess,” Julian says, catching his breath with his hands on his hips, “you have her Pinterest board?”
I shrug. “And if I do?”
“Then you know what you’re doing,” Rowan says.
Julian wipes his forehead with the back of his tattooed wrist. “When are we going to start the library?”
“Tomorrow,” I pant. “Some other furniture gets delivered tomorrow.”
“What else?” Rowan asks. He drops himself back onto the couch with a huff.
“Bed frame, shelves, the chaise for the library, my desk, mattress,” I list off, “and the new TV.”
Rowan blows out a whistle. “I can’t believe you bought her a house.”
Exhausted from the long afternoon of moving in heavy furniture, I drop myself on the couch too. Julian follows right after.
“I can’t believe it either,” I mutter. “Does it ever hit you sometimes? Julian, you have a daughter. Rowan, you have the restaurant. Nico has a whole teaching career and Luca’s a whole firefighter, and I have…whatever this is.”
“We’re adults now,” Julian groans. “And I’m a fucking dad.”
Rowan chuckles. “Yeah, man. And Christian is gonna be engaged soon.”
“You could be too if you just had a proper conversation with Natalia,” Julian grumbles.
Rowan smirks. “I have conversations with her.”
“The ones where she insults you and you smile?”
Rowan smiles. “It’s flirting.”
“It’s not,” Julian and I say together.
“Hello!”
“In here!” Rowan calls out.
Strutting in comes Luca and Nico, holding up six packs of glass bottled sodas. I chuckle at the safe replacement for beer.
“We brought drinks!” Luca announces.
“And the other couch!” Nico says.
I watch the two of them. On the surface, they seem normal and amicable.
But Lana and I both know, and maybe everyone else, there’s an unspoken secret.
Nico and Isabelle have kept their crushes quiet, never acting on them for Luca’s sake because of the outdated “bro code.” All of us think it’s fine as long as they’re happy, but we don’t say it out loud, much less to Luca.
“What the fuck,” Julian hisses and stands from the couch, glaring at me. “How many fucking couches do you need?”
“As many as it takes.”
“When are you going to show it to her?” Luca asks, popping off the metal cap on a Coke bottle and handing it to me.
“Later this week, I hope.” I take a long, delicious sip of the ice cold soda. “If you all stop slacking.”
“How did you know about the furniture?” Nico asks.
And, in sync, Rowan, Julian, Luca, and I say, “Pinterest.”
“You think she’ll like it?” I ask shyly, using my thumbnail to pick at the wrapper around the glass.
“Yes,” Nico says. “But you know her better than any of us. You already know she will.”
Luca takes a sip and asks, “And you’re hosting her birthday party here?”
I shrug. “Yeah? I don’t know. She always celebrates mine and… You guys tried to…”
Rowan frowns. “We tried every year.”
“I know,” I rasp. “That makes me feel better.”
“She was taken care of,” Luca adds quietly.
“I know.”
I feel a clap on my back and I know it is from Julian. “Don’t think about it,” he says. “Come on. We got work to do.”
“Finish up your soda, kids,” Rowan sighs and chugs the last of his soda. “Time to get back to work.”
The good thing about my friends is that we can be emotional together. We can say things without risking judgment. Whether we’re angry, crying, heartbroken—none of that matters because we support each other. Always have.
In New York, I missed that. And having it today with them as we work to set the furniture for my and Lana’s house is settling. Calming and familiar.
It is another one of the things I had been missing.
And this house…
Later this week, I can finally show her the house of her dreams. And I can tell her it’s all ours. That we did it.