Page 41 of 500 First Editions (The Romantics #3)

RYAN

HOW THE TABLES TURN

Willow had caught a writing bug and didn’t stop working last night, even as the hands of the clock went around and around. I made the most of it, tackling my own pile of work as the night rolled on.

She finally turned in around four in the morning, curling up beside me and staying there until the sun broke through the trees and sliced through the windows.

I was way too fucking old to be staying up that late. I had no idea how she was up and at ‘em already.

I had just closed my eyes again and dozed off when the bathroom door opened. I peered over the covers and spotted Willow with a towel around her body and one on top of her head.

Damn . . .

The edge of the towel stopped just below the curve of her ass. The tail was tucked between her breasts. Sure, I had seen her in a bra and panties—we had been living with each other for nearly two months. But I always respectfully excused myself when she was changing.

But right now . . .

Right now I didn’t want to.

She must have thought I was asleep. That’s why she hadn’t grabbed her clothes to go back to the bathroom to get dressed.

“If you drop that towel, you’re going to fucking kill me, cupcake.”

Willow whipped around, clutching the towel to her chest. Her eyes went wide as I sat up in bed, letting the covers pool around my waist.

“I thought you were asleep,” she whispered as she stood frozen. Whispers from the ceiling fan kissed her shower-speckled skin, making goosebumps dance along her shoulders and arms.

I wanted to kiss each one until they all disappeared.

I couldn’t pull my eyes away from her. All I wanted to know was what was underneath that towel.

I wanted to know what she felt like. Willow was my obsession.

I thought about nothing else. I sought no one else.

And if it wasn’t going to be her, I wasn’t sure it was going to be anyone.

“I know,” I said as sleep and sex rattled in my voice. “I was just letting you know in case you wanted me to step out.”

The noon rays of light reflected in her bottle green eyes, bringing out the flecks of gold that hid behind emerald prisms.

And then those eyes darkened.

“What if I don’t want you to leave?”

“Wills—” Her name came out tangled in a breath.

“If you don’t want to look, then don’t look.” With one hand still holding the towel around her chest, she pulled off the one around her hair. “But I think you want to look.”

She was fucking teasing me. Testing me. Taunting me. Pink hair damp from the shower caressed her skin the way I wanted to.

Willow and I had reached a fork in the road. Either I had to be all-in, or I had to keep this thing between us as low-stakes as possible, so we could part ways in four weeks with minimal damage.

Well . . . so she could escape the crash with minimal damage. I would be wrecked when she walked away.

If she walked away.

I wasn’t planning to make it easy for her to turn her back and walk that road alone.

I sat against the headboard and lazily draped an arm over her empty stack of pillows as I pushed the covers away from my hips. “Go on, then. Give me a show.”

“Doesn’t seem very fair . . .” she mused as she fingered the terrycloth hugging her breasts. “I’ll be naked and you have boxers on.”

I reached beneath the elastic band of my boxer briefs and stroked my quickly hardening cock. “Life’s not fair, cupcake. And if memory serves, I told you very early on that I was going to make you beg.”

Willow’s eyes dropped to my dick.

I was fully awake now, late night be damned. “Tell me to walk out that door and give you privacy,” I said with a sharp edge to my voice, but I never stopped working my palm up and down my cock.

She tightened the towel around her, but took a step closer. I crooked my finger, beckoning her on.

“I will sit here and look at your body all damn day, but I’m not touching you unless you’re desperate and pleading for me to make you feel good.”

A devilish smile curled the corner of her mouth. “Then it’s going to be a very long day for you.”

And then she dropped the towel.

Air leached from my lungs in a torrent, squeezing the life from my chest as I was met with soft teardrop breasts dotted with pert nipples, the gentle curve of a knockout ass, and a glistening pussy tucked between her thighs.

I wanted those legs spread immediately. I wanted to explore every crease and valley of her sex. I wanted to memorize the patterns of veins that streaked her skin until they were burned into my mind like a map leading me home.

Willow turned, giving me an unobstructed view of her ass, then bent to towel dry her hair.

I groaned as I fisted my cock harder and harder. Her pussy peeked out from between her spread ankles.

How good it would feel to sink my cock deep into her warmth and bury myself in her . . .

She straightened and tossed the towel into the laundry hamper, then took a lazy stroll to her side of the bed to grab her phone and scroll through the notifications. “I think I’m going to throw a frozen pizza in the oven for lunch,” she said nonchalantly.

I lifted an eyebrow, trying to look as casual as I could as pressure zipped down my spine. “Baby, I mean this in the most respectful way possible, but there’s only one thing I want to eat and it’s not a fucking pizza.”

She braced her knee on the edge of the bed and leaned in. Her breasts grazed my arm as she pressed a mischievous kiss to the corner of my mouth and whispered, “Then you’ll have to beg for it.”

I reached for her, but Willow was faster—strolling through the bedroom door, naked as the day she was born.

“You’re going to fucking kill me,” I muttered under my breath as I tossed the covers back and bolted into the bathroom to freshen up and brush my teeth.

Willow was pawing around in the kitchen when I came out of the bathroom. Her back was to me as she read the directions on the pizza box. My palms hitting the kitchen counter sounded like a gunshot as I caged her in.

My cock nestled in the crease of her ass, barely restrained by my boxers. “Do you remember what you told me last night when you came to bed?”

She arched her back as she pulled the cardboard tab to open the box. “Yes.”

“You said I could kiss you tomorrow.”

She let out a quiet snort of amusement. “Pretty sure since I came to bed this morning , that you have a ways to go before tomorrow.”

“Do you really want me to wait until tomorrow to put my mouth on you? To kiss you until you can’t breathe?” I nipped at her earlobe and felt her knees buckle.

“Fine,” she clipped as she lifted her nose in the air. “You can kiss me today.” Willow turned as green flames flared from her irises. “But you have to do it on your knees.”

A thud echoed through the silent house as I dropped to the floor and skated my hands up her thighs. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Better make it a good kiss,” she said as she rested her elbows on the kitchen counter, spine curving like a bow string as she tipped her head back.

I hooked my hand behind the back of her knee, peppering her inner thigh with kisses as I drew her leg up until she used my shoulder as a footrest. A satisfied hum slipped free from her mouth as she closed her eyes.

Her pussy was dripping with arousal, and part of me wondered just how much longer we would have lasted in our game of chicken.

But I wasn’t about to find out.

I laid a single supple kiss on her clit and listened for her breath.

It was magnificent. Willow’s hiss and inhale made my dick hard as granite.

I tilted my head and licked a long line up the soft folds of her sex with the flat of my tongue. Her knee buckled as I swirled my tongue around her clit.

“Atta girl. You can give in to me. I’ll make you feel so good.” I murmured against her cunt as she whined incoherent pleas. “Where’s that attitude now? You ready to beg me yet? Or do you want me to keep kissing this pretty pussy?”

In response, her foot slid from my shoulder as she replaced it with the back of her knee and dragged me closer, pinning me beneath her.

I wrapped my hands around her hips and grazed her clit with my teeth.

Willow cried out in desperate delight as her knuckles turned white against the edge of the counter.

One hand dropped from the edge, fingers tangling in my hair as she made a dire attempt to keep my head right where it was.

I growled against the delicate soaked skin. “I think you want me inside of you. I think you want me fucking you. Is that what you want, baby?” I sealed my mouth around her clit as I sucked and teased the little bundle of nerves with the tip of my tongue.

Willow gasped for air as “Fuck!” escaped her mouth in a torrent. It was part pleasure, part frustration, and part desperation.

“Ready to give in yet?” I teased.

Willow’s fist slammed against the counter.

“I bet you’re so fucking tight inside. So ready for me.

I bet you feel empty, don’t you, baby?” I bit down on her clit and felt her gush of pleasure wet my face as she drew closer and closer to an orgasm.

“Is this where you want my cock?” I taunted as I circled her entrance with the tip of my finger.

“I bet those little muscles are squeezing down on nothing and it’s driving you absolutely crazy. ”

“ Ryan ,” she whimpered as her toes curled against the floor.

“I love hearing my name on your lips, but that’s not begging.” I strummed her clit as I pulled back to catch my breath. “Maybe you need a little more motivation.”

“You have to be dying,” she rasped like she had been wandering the desert. “You’re torturing yourself more than me.”

“Not knowing what you tasted like was torture.” I lapped up her slit and drank her in. “This is a fucking treat. I’m enjoying myself.”

“ Ryan ,” she breathed as her legs tightened around me.

“Close, but that’s still not begging.”

“Please,” she whimpered as she rocked her hips, grinding down on my face.