Page 38 of Extended Bridge (Passionate Beats #2)

Chapter Twenty-One

W hen I climb the steps to enter the bus, a mixture of excitement and nervousness takes residence throughout my body.

I’ve been on Bennett’s bus countless times, but usually with the excuse of physical therapy.

Of course we’ve done much more than that, but tonight’s the first time we have an agenda—actual, full-blown, never-going-back sex.

It feels weird, as if we put it down on our calendar.

Questions swirl:

What if he doesn’t like it?

What if I forget how it all works?

What if he gets me out of his system tonight?

“I can hear you thinking from across the bus.” Bennett hands me a glass of champagne. “We don’t have to do anything tonight if you don’t want to.”

Am I that transparent? “No, I want to. The doctor’s restriction is over. You’re good to go.” I pause. “So long as you take it easy.”

He pushes my still curly locks away from my face. “Oh, I plan on taking it slow. Very slow. I want to savor every single moan that comes out of your delicious mouth.” He kisses me as if to punctuate his last sentence.

I sip my champagne and sit on the sofa, facing the blank screen of the television. Might as well come clean. “I’m nervous.”

“Believe it or not, so am I.”

I rear back. “Pu-lease.”

“I am, Sweetheart. Sure, I’ve had sex with women who didn’t matter to me. You, on the other hand, mean more to me than anyone ever before. I want to make a good impression on you, so you’ll keep coming back for more.”

“I sincerely doubt that will be an issue. You’ve already made a good impression.” I guzzle my champagne and flip the now-empty glass. How did that happen?

“Have you enjoyed all the other stuff we’ve done?”

How can he even have the smallest question about it? “You know I have.”

“Good. Because we’re going to do all that, and then some. Tonight’s a big night for both of us, Jenna. I’m ready if you are.”

This is it. My last chance to turn around and return to Aroostook. Deal with the fallout Court’s handling on her own. My gaze takes in the man next to me, and I know none of that will happen. I belong here. With Bennett. Possibly forever. My breath hitches.

He asks again, “Are you ready?”

I sit up taller. “Yes.”

He doesn’t say anything, simply places my empty flute on the table.

For the first time, I realize he doesn’t have a glass.

Before I can say anything about it, he clasps my cold hand and brings it up to his mouth.

Staring directly into my eyes, he kisses the back of my palm. “I love you, Sweetheart.”

“I love you back, Bennett.”

It’s as if speaking these words shot me with the strength I was missing. I want to be with this man. It’s time to prove it.

I lean forward, and rain tiny kisses all over his face. When I reach his lips, it’s like one of those meteors we watched the other night exploding across the sky. The next thing I know, our shirts sail across the tiny room and my new black bra ends up on the floor.

“Wait,” I admonish. “Nese gave me that. Don’t you want to pay proper homage to her work?”

“It looks beautiful on the floor.” He pauses. “Wherever it is.”

Smiling, I shake my head. I’ll model it for him later. Not wanting to give the bus driver a show, I say, “Let’s take this to the bedroom.

Bennett complains, “Hey, that’s my line.” He stands and helps me to my feet, kissing every square inch his lips can reach.

By the time we enter the back room, my fingers have managed to unbutton his jeans, yet my miniskirt is still firmly in place. “Nese is a flipping genius. You’re the sexiest schoolgirl I’ve ever seen.”

“Then you got her vision. Your black leather pants onstage rock too. Not that these jeans don’t as well.” I roll the jeans down his muscular thighs. They come off, together with his shoes and socks. I suck in my breath. “If your fans could see you now.”

“Nope. For your eyes only.”

Plus the others who have been in my position before. Why am I thinking about them now? The ghost of his former bandmate tries to join our party, but he’s not allowed. Like his prior groupies. There’s no room for anyone else in this bedroom. Only us.

I break the silence by noting, “I like the sound of that.”

He seems comfortable in only his black boxer briefs. So relaxed, in fact, that he strips them off his body. If I looked like him, I’d be naked all the time. “You’re gorgeous.” My fingers work their way down his musculature, delighting at how his muscles jump in response.

His fingers skim the top of my skirt. “Can I take this off?”

“I don’t know, can you?” Sassy girl is back, but Bennett doesn’t seem to mind.

“Oh, I most certainly can.” His lips cover mine in a kiss unlike any other. Like a homing pigeon, his fingers unzip the skirt and it falls to the floor. He holds out his hand. “I need those panties.”

“I don’t think they’d look good on you.” Where is this fresh mouth coming from?

“No, but they’d look fabulous in my pocket as I play for thousands.”

“You’d do that?” I squeak.

“You have no idea, Sweetheart. Now hand them over.” He opens and closes his hand several times.

I take a deep breath and slide them down my still-booted feet. “Here you go.”

His response is to sniff, then rub his face around them. “Damn. So sweet.” He tosses them on top of his own underwear. He stares at my boots. “I like those too, but they’ll be in the way when your legs are around my waist.”

I bend down and unlace them, taking my time to remove one boot, then the other, and tossing the socklets on the floor. When I stand, I’m as bare as he is. I lick my lips.

“Come here, beautiful.” His arms encircle my body, and our kiss is so hot it could scorch the walls.

Bennett steals my breath, as well as all rational thoughts.

I’m reduced to a quivering mass of feelings, all of which are being directed by him.

As if on stage leading the band, he’s running this interlude like a master conductor.

“I want this to last,” he murmurs against my ear.

“Sounds good, so long as you don’t reinjure yourself.”

He pulls back. “I don’t know. If I get hurt again, you’d have to stay with us on tour longer. It might be incentive for me to be reckless.”

I tap the center of his chest, capturing his necklace for a moment. “Not so fast. Who knows what injury you could do to yourself? You’d have more doctors involved. Maybe I couldn’t give you therapy for whatever you hurt.”

“I love it when you talk PT to me. You make me sweat.”

I curl my arms around his broad shoulders, loving the way the muscles beneath his tatted arms dance. “Message received. ”

“Good. And here’s another message for you—I’m going to give you five orgasms tonight.”

Five? “Don’t set such a high bar. I’ll be thrilled with one so long as it’s from you.”

“Believe me, we’re both going to remember this night for years. Now, get on that bed and open your legs. I want to see the goods.”

“The goods?”

In response, he growls.

Deciding to let it go—for now—I get on top of the bed and lie on my back. My legs are yanked apart by the impatient lead singer.

“There. Not so hard, was it?”

My gaze flicks down his torso to his cock pointing at his belly button. “Looks hard to me.”

“Damn, woman.” He flings himself onto the bed and crawls up to me on his hands and knees. He sucks his index finger. Then, gaze locked with mine, he inserts it into my body causing me to arch my back. A second finger joins the first, plunging in and out.

“Oh,” I cry out, my head thrashing on the pillow.

He chuckles. “Like that?”

In response, I bite my bottom lip. I’ve never been this turned on so quickly, yet he has me squirming in no time flat. When his thumb rubs my clit, an orgasm detonates in my body.

I don’t have time to recover at all when his tongue laps at my still-throbbing pussy. “You’re so sweet. The reason I call you Sweetheart,” he admits.

I can’t comprehend what he’s saying, since his tongue is doing magical things to me. It’s as if my first orgasm rolled into another. And another.

Covered in sweat, the back of my hand pushes my hair off my face. I’m sure the curls are a mess now, but I can’t summon any energy to care. “Bennett,” I begin. All of my bones have sunk into the bed, taking my two remaining brain cells with them.

He sits on his haunches, wearing only a delicious smirk. “I like it when I can reduce you to only saying my name. ”

“Bennett,” I try again.

He laughs. “Yeah, just like that.”

My arm extends toward his body, but he’s too far away. “I want to touch you.” Five words in a row. A new record .

“Like this?” He gives himself a long stroke, causing me to moan. He repeats the motion again.

When he goes for a third downward stroke, I find the strength to sit up in the bed. “No. Let me.”

Still sitting on his heels, his hands drop to the bed. His gaze bounces between his hardness to me and down again.

Sliding my knees forward until they touch his, I bend and kiss his tip. A salty bit that had leaked coats my tongue—I sit up and stick my tongue out to him before swallowing his essence.

“I was going to take this slow, but not now.” He pushes me onto my back, then turns me onto my stomach. He shoves a pillow under my hips, and my legs are spread open again. “You are too sexy for your own good,” he rumbles as his fingers enter me from behind.

“Trying to keep up with you.”

“Then hold on.”

With this warning, I hear a foil packet open and a second later he pulls me up to my hands and knees. His cock prods at my entrance, then slides in an inch. Pulls back. In. Out. Over and over until he’s buried deep inside.

“I love how you hold me so tight.” He kisses the ear he was whispering his praise. “It’s like you were made for me.”

“You,” I pant. “Feel.” He pushes in and out, harder this time. “So.” His hands slide down to my hips. “Good.” He squeezes my butt cheeks.

“You’re perfect.” He kisses between my shoulder blades.

His hips change direction, swiveling in a circular motion, igniting all sorts of explosions behind my eyes.

All I can do is push backward to meet his thrusts.

For once I’m happy I don’t have big boobs, as what I do have are swinging with the force of him.

Another orgasm sparkles on the horizon. “Again? ”

“Definitely.”

Everything around me fades to black as pleasure overtakes me. I shout, “Yes!”

Again, not waiting for me to recover, Bennett pulls out and flips me onto my back, securing my legs around his hips.

I lock my ankles, holding on as he pounds into me.

His lips find mine. “Once more. For me, one more time.” Sweat races down his chest while he continues to thrust into me, harder and harder.

“I can’t.” At this point, I only want him to share some of the ecstasy I’ve already received. I lick some of the wetness off his defined chest.

Above me, he pronounces, “You’re wrong.” His hand reaches behind his back and he grabs onto my ankles. Leaning away from me, he plows even harder.

The new angle shifts something deep within me. A soul-crushing orgasm threatens for a second, then recedes. Bennett continues pounding hard, his mouth contorted in a mix of pain and pleasure. He orders, “Now!”

I don’t know from where, but the orgasm from a second ago races up from my toes to explode out of the top of my head. As I scream my completion, I see white except for Bennett’s face, which is bathed in light. He ceases all movement, then roars his own climax.

With a series of kisses over my cheeks, he lays on top of me. Welcoming his weight, I wrap my boneless arms around him. The only noises are panted breaths and wet flesh sliding against the other.

He slips onto his side, his fingers securing the spent condom. “I’ll take care of this. Then you.” He kisses me one last time as he disappears out of the room toward the bathroom.

I stretch. This man rocked my world on its axis. What preceded tonight’s activities pale in comparison. If there was any doubt, Bennett owns my world.

He stalks through the open door, a washcloth in his hand. “How are you feeling, Sweetheart?”

Why lie? “Amazing. ”

“I like the sound of that. Now open for me.”

What? Again? “Bennett, I don’t think I have it in me?—”

“Not so soon.” He bends down and kisses me. “I want to make sure you’re all right.”

I muse aloud, “No one has ever done this before.”

“Then another point in my favor.” He presses the wet cloth against my core, taking the sting out of his previous amazing use of it. I moan at his ministrations, causing a self-satisfied smile to overtake his face.

He tosses the washcloth onto the floor and crawls into bed behind me. My body curls around him as he entwines our limbs. We remain locked together.

I giggle.

I feel him smile. “What’s that for?”

Tracing his tattoos, I reply, “You lived up to your hype.”

“You more than surpassed yours.” He rubs his nose against my cheek. “I did get five orgasms out of you.”

Can’t deny the truth. “You did. Not sure how.”

Behind me, his body swells. “It was us.”

His statement hangs in the air, then alights in my heart. I twist so we’re facing each other. “We’re blessed.”

He pushes the hair away from my face. “I’ve never thought of that word as applying to my life. Ever.” With a gentle touch, he kisses my lips. “But with you—us—I think you may be right.”

I clasp his hand. “Oh, Bennett, you’re blessed in so many ways.

Maybe not with your family, but with your band of brothers.

With Luke. And Jeb and Nese and Danny the bus driver and everyone associated with UC.

You’re surrounded by so many blessings. Even the fact that you were able to hire Kieron as a new guitar tech on such short notice. Believe me, you are blessed.”

His cheek goes in and out as he contemplates what I’ve told him. I reach out and smooth his eyebrows, but remain silent. He needs to understand what I’ve told him is true .

“They’re all contracted to do what they’re doing for me. You’re not.”

My heart hurts at how he’s processing this. I’m about to argue with him, when he adds, “Well, you sort of are.”