Page 29

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SADIE

I barely tasted my dinner. He wants me to move in with him?

Aubry looks up from his side of the table, the little fireplace dancing in his eyes. “That was delicious.”

Was it?

I smile meekly, glad that I didn’t poison him. “My mom taught me how to make it,” I say as my brain keeps tumbling the same thoughts over and over.

I can’t move in with him.

We’ve only been dating for two weeks.

But we are dating.

He called me his girlfriend!

And he wants to take me on a beach vacation to Mexico.

And move in with him.

I can’t do it.

Even if this house is gigantic and closer to everything in Loomis than the townhouse out in Rocklin. I wouldn’t have to put up with Olivia’s need to keep every thing in the fridge in plastic. Or her flakiness when it comes to rent.

Not to mention I’d get to wake up every day with a man whose idea of breakfast starts between my legs. Going to bed with him. Making dinners together. Being fucked on the couch, the piano, the kitchen table, that weird sauna thing that doesn’t work.

Everything sounds way too good to be true. And is coming way too fast.

If all of this goes south, I won’t just have a broken heart, I’ll be living on the streets. I can’t do this.

I…

The autumn breeze blows back his button-up. His white undershirt hugs over every muscle and glows in the firelight. Instead of staring intently at me for an answer, he’s scratching his cat that curled up in his lap and refused to move all dinner.

He’s hot.

He’s sweet.

He’s rich.

He’s got a cute cat.

What’s the problem?

“I’m sorry…”

Oh, shit. I slap my hand over my mouth, but it’s too late. He looks up from his purring orange baby. Even as he asks, “For what?” his eyes crinkle in sadness.

He knows.

But what’s he going to do when I turn him down?

“Your house. I mean, I’m not sorry for the house. It’s beautiful. Lots of really interesting statues…”

He snickers. “They came with the place.”

“I don’t know if I can move in with you.

Right now. I just…” My hands clench the napkin in my lap.

He’s the kind of guy to have cloth napkins, and I’m turning him down.

“Things in my life are kinda a mess. I just started getting real traction with my photography business. The lease on the townhouse doesn’t renew until February.

I can’t figure out these damn hives to save my life… ”

I start to scratch at my chest even though they’ve mostly receded. Aubry watches, his eyes boring into my fingers, and I stop.

“I don’t know if I’d be a very good roommate right now. I’m sorry.”

He plants his elbows on the table and hides his mouth behind his folded hands.

Damn it. Is he mad? Will he toss me out and find some other chubby girl to throw ass over end all night?

My body starts to rock in the chair, wanting to get me out of this.

Burning across my face, my head tips back until I can only see the stars and not his penetrating stare.

“I understand.”

Wha?

“It’s easy to cling to something familiar when times are tough.”

He’s not angry. If anything he looks…sad?

“I’m sorry,” I repeat and reach for his hand. Instead of rearing back, he takes mine.

Aubry starts to lift my fingers to his lips. “What about the vacation?”

“Oh, yeah, that’s for sure on. I’ll have to get a swimsuit…bikini. Very tiny bikini—”

He kisses the back of my hand, then peers up at me. His eyes blaze in the strange firelight. “You’re torturing me again.”

“No, I…”

Aubry looks at me like a tiger about to sink its fangs into a gazelle. I try to tear myself away, but I’m transfixed. Done in by the orange and blue light swirling across his ravenous face.

“I am not,” I fumble, my breath catching.

“Hmph.” He draws his touch higher up my arm. “Filling my head with the image of you in a string bikini knowing I’ll have to wait until January to see it.”

My palm lands flat to his chest as he stretches across the table. The fire dances right against his shirt, but he doesn’t flinch. He only focuses on me. “That is cruel and unusual.”

Aubry hooks a hand under his cat, lifting him from his lap. Just as Astin gets his paws under him and runs for the backdoor, Aubry paces around the table. He slams a hand onto the granite, then looms over me. My hairs stand on end like a thunderstorm.

“For that…” Teasing the strap of my dress, he leans closer until his wet lips press to my ear. “You must be punished.”

“How are you—?”

Snap.

He tore through the strap of my dress with his bare hand. Just split it in half with a flick. The side doesn’t have too far to go, my breasts keeping it up, but I stare at up at him in shock.

Also some aw.

And a whole lot of fuck-me-now.

“Do you have any idea what that cost?” I ask, my indignation rolling with my ache to see him do it again.

Aubry cocks his head to the side. He doesn’t smile, but his eyes shine. “No,” he says with a laugh, then tears the other strap.

I yelp and fling my hands up to my chest.

“That won’t save you.” He reaches for me and I fear he’s going to tear the last of the dress to pieces. But just as I try to protect what can’t be saved, he bends over and catches my waist.

“What the…?” I gasp as I fly through the air and land on his shoulder. My hands press into his back as I try to spin around. This is insane. I’m too big for this. He has to—

A tap strikes my ass, jolting me awake. “You are going to be confined to my bed all night…and day.”

He can’t be serious.

Without so much as a wobble, Aubry walks toward the door.

He’s gonna put me down inside. He can’t possibly carry me all the way to his bedroom.

It’s through like a dozen rooms in this castle.

Digging my hands into his back, I try to see around, but the world goes whooshing on past. Through the kitchen, down the hallway, and toward the stairs.

Marble stairs.

It’d really hurt if I fell down them.

“Okay.” I start to laugh. It’s impressive how long he can do this, but it’s good enough. “You can put me down.”

“Are you wearing a bikini?” he asks with such deadly seriousness, I look down.

“No?”

Aubry tips his head higher and starts to climb. As we bound up the stairs, he keeps swatting my ass. But with each one, he lingers, probing under the rising hem. “I’m going to enjoy the strip search.”

Holy shit. He carried me up the stairs. Me. Like I weighed nothing. Like I wasn’t almost six feet tall.

With a great swing of his foot, he kicks in a door. I sit up, trying to get a sense of where I am. Purple light flickers around the room like a magic fire. I gaze up at the ceiling when the whole world shifts.

Aubry barely bends down before he heaves me off of his shoulder. I yelp, flying through the air, and crash into a downy cloud.

His bed.

I start to laugh and sit up when two hundred and fifty pounds of muscle pounce on me. His hands catch my wrists, pinning me back down. He slides his knee between mine, spreading my thighs and inching my dress past scandalous. There’s no way I can throw him off me, and I don’t want to.

Aubry gazes down my body. After the ride, my torn dress has fallen like an apron, exposing my bra. He licks his lips and shakes back his hair. “Think about what you could have if you lived with me.”

My wrists slide up the bed as Aubry bends over. Nipping up my jaw, he rocks his hips over mine. His bulge pushes my dress even higher until cold air strikes my soaked-through panties. “Think about what I could give you if you lived here.”

He lets go of my wrists, but I don’t move them. I’m ensnared, aching to see what he does next. Aubry traces his touch down my inner arm. “Think about what I could do to you if you lived with me.”

Rip!

With his bare hands, he tears my dress in half, nearly reaching the bottom. Straddling me, Aubry lets the pieces fall to the sides of my exposed chest as I breathe hard. He calmly wipes off his hands and smiles.

“Think about all of that…as I fuck you.”

Holy—

Two fingers plunder through my panties and glide into me. “I love how wet you get for me,” he says with his teeth just brushing over my cheek.

I swallow hard and tip my head back, following his every tease across my clit and hard pulse inside of me. My hands are free, but I keep them pressed to the bed as if he’s still holding them. Just give into the whims of Aubry Gene once again as he drives me mad with a million and one orgasms.

His lips press down my belly and fingers catch on the hips of my panties. All I have to do is lie back and squirm on his tongue. Maybe thrust my hips onto him as he cries out for more.

“Wait!” I shout.

Even though he looks about to tear my underwear off my thighs with his teeth, he pauses. “What?” he huffs, struggling to get the word out.

I sit up and cup my hand to his chest. A strange awkwardness circles me as I trace over his ribbed undershirt. “I want to go first,” I say.

His brow furrows so deep he looks about to sneeze.

My palm flattens on his chest and I push. It’s barely any pressure, but Aubry slides to the side so I can wiggle out from under him. Then I stand up.

Reaching back to unhook my bra, I ground my stance. My gaze falls to his thighs and the bulge straining his jeans. After tossing away my bra, I lean closer. I barely reach out before his cock leaps for my hand. Aubry’s eyes light up as I tug the denim up his shaft then move to the fly.

“I’m going to suck you off,” I threaten.

He smirks. “A prelude…”

“No. The whole song.”

His smile falls. “Why?”

To show I can. To prove that I’ve got what it takes to be the perfect girlfriend. “Because.” I flick my finger at him and he inches back up the bed. As he goes, his jeans tug down. He’s staring intently at my free-flying breasts with the occasional glance down at my panties caught on my thighs.

“I’m going to suck you down my throat”—somehow—“and swallow every drop.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes!” I thunder, hands on my hips.

Aubry places his hands behind his head like he’s relaxing, but flexes both biceps. It’s my show now.

I can do this. Balancing on my knees, I bend over until the tip of my nose traces down his treasure trail. He’s watching, but he better not be planning to throw me aside and fuck me. I’m doing this.

Every last drop.

My tongue glances to the very tip of his cock. His thighs harden, and he sits up higher. Like I’m kowtowing to an emperor, I bend down on my elbows, and suck him into my mouth.

Oh, fuck.

Too much. Too much.

“Yes,” he moans. Fingers run through my hair, teasing it apart until he can massage my scalp. It feels so good, I start to mumble and grunt around his cock. Even if I’ve only gotten a couple inches in, Aubry’s fucking loving it.

He jerks his hips, trying to chase my mouth.

I thought I could do this without my hands, but I’m gonna choke on that thing. Putting my abs to the test, I lick up his cock, then cinch my hand to the base. Aubry jerks up higher.

“Fuck. Sadvhi. Let me between those thighs.”

I shake my head, the crown of his cock bounding around in my mouth. That causes Aubry to dig his nails in and moan. All the while, I move my hand up and down his shaft, tugging the pliant skin opposite to my mouth.

“Please,” he begs. “You can’t… Oh…”

I cup his balls, rolling them back and forth in my palm as I manage to work my mouth lower. Tears sprout in my eyes, but I keep going. Needing to hear him scream for me. Needing to feel him come down my throat.

His hand drops down to my cheek and starts to press me off of him.

I lick faster.

“Fuck. This won’t save you!” he cries out, thrusting his hips in time with my hand. “I will fuck you so hard tonight, you won’t be able to leave your bed for a…for a…”

He goes rock hard all the way to his cock that’s swelled to the point of explosion. I give one good jerk of my hand to meet my lips and suck.

“Gah!” Aubry screams, bucking as he explodes down my throat. He keeps trying to push me back, but I swallow it all. At first, it doesn’t taste like much of anything, a little sweet and kinda fresh like a cucumber. But as I do another lap up his deflating cock, a tingling starts.

My lips zip with electricity to the point I touch them expecting a spark as I sit up.

Aubry’s resting on his elbows, his head tossed back while guzzling in air. I rest my hand on his chest, feeling his breathing. A few final drops erupt out, but the rest went down my throat.

“How was…” I cough, the tingling catching. “That?”

His head snaps up, his eyes wild. “You…” He fists himself as if to either bring his cock back to life, or squeeze the last bit out. “…are going to pay for that.”

“Oh?” I try to tease him with a laugh, but he’s leaning closer and his eyes demand justice.

“You owe me a dozen orgasms.” Aubry catches my fallen panties and wrenches them down my legs. “No, two dozen. Right now!”

I swallow, shaking in anticipation.

Whew. Is it getting hot?

I mean, he’s hot and…

Another cough rattles my throat, but this one’s harder. It tears through the tissue, and I gasp in air. Racing to catch the cough in my hand, my fingers hit my lips and they sting. Not like after a kiss, or even a plate of hot wings.

No. It’s more like…

“Aub—” I fumble onto my back. The growling man leers over me. But ,as he reads the panic in my eyes, his turn to fear. “Help!” I mewl out, scratching at my throat.

I don’t know how. I don’t know why, but I’m having an allergic attack.

And it’s closing off my throat instantly.

Drowning on dry land, I gasp, but nothing can come in.

“I’m…” I flail my hand out, terrified.

Derek, watching, laughing.

He could do the same. He could leave me here. Watch me die. I cling to Aubry, silently begging for help.

He vanishes. My hand falls to the bed, empty.

This is it. My ears ring and vision goes dark. I’m falling into a faint, and I know that if I do pass out, I’m never waking up again. Aubry…

I don’t know how I fucked up.

But I’m dying.

I’m so sorry. I wish I…

I wish I’d gone with you to Mexico.

A pinch hits my thigh, and I gasp. Fingers run under my neck, lifting my head off of the bed.

Slowly, sound comes back like a tuning radio. “…okay. Stay with me. It’s going to be okay.”

Purple eyes dare me to stay alive.