Page 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

JACK

Sawyer

Evening, lovebird. Just checking in to make sure Tyler hasn’t hidden a hit man in your apartment and my winger is in fact still breathing.

Me

Still breathing, but I haven’t checked all the rooms yet.

Listen, I might not be Cupid’s biggest believer these days. But from what I saw, death might be worth it.

I sit on the end of my bed with my shirt undone, bow tie hanging loosely around my neck.

You saw the kiss?

Sweetheart, EVERYONE saw the kiss.

If it looked anything like how it felt, then it was likely the greatest show of their lives.

Me

She’s incredible.

I dump my phone down on the bed beside me. So much of me wants to tell Sawyer about the arrangement Kendra and I made, and being honest, I don’t know why I haven’t.

I pick my phone back up and begin typing out another message.

Me

Can I trust you?

Sawyer

Have I given you a reason to doubt me yet?

True.

Kendra and me—well, we’re fake dating. I offered to take her to the gala to help keep Tyler off her back and so she wouldn’t feel so uncomfortable if he turned up with a random date. That kiss you saw earlier—it wasn’t exactly real.

I hit Send on the message and instantly feel like my efforts to be straight with him are anything but. Everything about that kiss felt real.

Sawyer

It’s real. Trust me when I say, you can’t fake that. I don’t care if you’ve won a hundred Golden Globes and Oscars line your trophy cabinets. That shit was real.

Me

I won’t deny that it was for me. I felt everything between us. I’m in deep with her. But how can you tell with Kendra?

Because that’s the way my wife used to look at me.

I feel the punch to my gut on his behalf. What can I say to a message like that? How can I—or why would I want to—argue with that kind of statement?

Reaching under my bed, I pull out the present I have wrapped for Kendra’s birthday tomorrow and then the card, all signed and ready to go.

The entire ride back was charged to fuck after the kiss, but neither of us spoke about it. And when we got back to my apartment, Kendra headed straight for bed without saying much.

I figured that would be the last time I saw her before she headed out for her game tomorrow. But when I see a dim light cast beneath my door and then hear hers close with a soft click, I realize she isn’t asleep.

Pulling off my shirt and bow tie, I throw on a training top, along with a pair of athletic shorts, and make my way toward the living area, but stop when I find Kendra curled up on my sofa, a couple of blankets thrown over her and the usual Friends playing quietly in the background.

“Can’t sleep?” I ask, knowing she hasn’t slept well since the day she got here.

She props her head up with her hand. “Looks like we’re in the same boat.”

I nod and make my way over to a chair on the opposite side of the room when Kendra sits up and pulls back the blankets.

“You promised me a Friends binge session, if I remember correctly.”

The blankets are already warm from her body heat when I take a seat next to her and pull them into my lap. “I also promised you shepherd’s pie.”

Her pink cheeks flush in the light casting from the TV. “I’m still waiting on your cooking. Eagerly waiting, if your overnight oats are anything to go by. ”

“Oh, so they were a hit, were they, Hart?”

She brings a hand from underneath the blanket, holding it out in front of her. “I’d say fair to good.”

Leaning toward her, I stop inches from her face. “You’re definitely a brat.”

She shoots back in mock hurt, “Must be a nightmare having me around.”

My face breaks into a cocky smile. “Fucking torturous.”

I continue to stare at her as my expression shifts from playful to a whole lot more. She took her makeup off and piled her hair into a messy bun since we got home. Honestly, this is the version of Kendra that I’ll remember when she moves out and finds her own place—relaxed and watching repeats of her favorite programs in my living room. This is the everyday version of the girl I’m falling for and the one I never want to end.

More silence stretches between us as the TV continues to play in the background, though I can’t take my eyes away from hers.

“You excited for your birthday tomorrow?”

Her tongue peeks out and swipes across her bottom lip, and when her gaze falls to my mouth, my cock stirs at the intensity in her eyes. The way it felt to kiss her earlier—no kiss with any other girl has ever come close to that.

“It depends,” she replies cheekily. “Did you get me anything?”

“I did.”

Our lips are centimeters apart. I want this girl so fucking badly. I’m right there, dangling on the precipice of my willpower.

“Can you show me now, or do I have to wait?” she asks, her voice barely a whisper.

If I make the move to kiss her, alone and with no one to see, then she’ll know it’s real for me. All I have to do is pray she’ll kiss me back.

Sawyer’s message repeats in my head.

“Fuck it.”

My mouth crashes against hers as I brace my hand on the sofa behind her body. Her tongue is hot and smooth as I leisurely tease it with mine, savoring the way she whimpers and melts beneath me. I want to taste every single part of the girl who’s invaded my mind since I was eighteen, but I also want to take it slow so I can remember all the ways she responds to my touch.

I thought the kiss earlier was special, but, fuck me, this is so much more. I feel myself sinking into her further, the lines of reality blurring completely.

But I’m too far in to pull back—or maybe even care. If fun is all she wants with me, then that’s what I’ll give her because the alternative is not an option.

Breaking from her lips, I start kissing across her jaw. Her skin is soft, just as I imagined it would be. Maybe even more perfect. When I start licking and sucking down her neck, her breathing picks up, as do her moans, and, fuuuuuck , my cock is so desperate to bury itself inside her.

“More,” she pleads in a voice I can scarcely hear. “More.”

My hands come under her ass, and I lift her up and onto me, throwing off the blankets in a single motion.

In tiny pink sleep shorts and a cami top, she looks like a wet fucking dream— my wet dream—as she straddles my lap and grinds down into me. She throws her head back and I watch from beneath her with fucking heart eyes.

Is this really happening right now? Or am I going to wake up, frustrated and with the bluest balls in history?

Gripping her hips tightly, I grind her harder against me, if only to realize my reality when she reaches up and pulls the tie from her bun, hair cascading around her shoulders.

“You like it like this, don’t you?” Her pupils are blown as she rocks into me, bracing her hands on my shoulders.

“Fucking stunning, Hart,” I breathe out, my cock threatening to blow at any damn second.

It’s been a while since I was with anyone, and right now, I’m in danger of going off before we’ve even gotten started .

My fingertips sink into her soft hips. “What do you want?” I ask.

Her hair falls around my face as she leans down and kisses me. “I want you to take me to your room and not hold back. I want you to make me come until I see stars.”

I bite down on my bottom lip. “Is that right? You want me to fuck you hard?” My hand falls to her ass, where I slide my fingers underneath the hem of her sleep shorts, and I immediately feel the heat radiating from her. “How wet is this pussy of yours?”

“Dripping,” she moans.

My fingers continue moving until they find the seam of her panties. “Can I be the judge of that?”

Kendra squeezes her eyes shut. “Touch me.”

I push two fingers underneath her already-soaked underwear, and when I feel how wet she is, my balls contract to the point of pain. “Is this all for me, Kitten?”

It’s the first time I’ve called Kendra the name I’ve associated her with since we met in the café, and by the feral look in her eyes, I know she likes it.

One swipe of three fingers through her pussy not only has her moaning out loud, but me as well. She spreads her thighs wider, granting me better access.

“I have every intention of fucking your brains out tonight.” I push the tip of my finger inside her tight entrance, and I hear the way her pussy takes me. “But I’m a guy who likes to play with my meal before I devour it. Would you be okay with that?”

“Ohmygod,” she gasps as I push my finger deeper, quickly adding another. “What do you have in mind?”

My mind wanders to the way I’ve always imagined Kendra beneath me, and I know she’ll look perfect.

I bring the hand that isn’t fingering her to a strap on her cami and pull it down over her shoulder, a breast spilling free. My tongue teases it, sucking and biting on her round, perfectly pink nipple .

I pop off and stare up at her as I sink my fingers deep and find her front wall.

Her head flops forward. “Oh fuck!”

She’s not coming yet, but I let her savor my fingers for a few more seconds before I pull them out and bring them to my mouth.

I’m like a starved animal as she watches me swallow down my first taste.

“I want to tie you to my bed and treat you like the queen you are, Kitten.” I wrap my hand around the nape of her neck and pull her face down to mine. “I want to watch when I make every single nerve in your body fire off. I want to do to you exactly what I’ve been thinking about since I laid eyes on you years ago.”

Her nipple hardens further, and I smile around it as I bring it into my mouth, pulling down the other strap on her top.

“Y-you want to tie me up?” Her voice shakes with lust.

“Only your hands,” I say as I switch to her other nipple. “I want all the work tonight to be mine. I want you at my mercy.”

“When will I get to touch you?”

Picking her up with my hands underneath her soaked sleep shorts, I stand, and she wraps her legs around my waist.

With her suspended like this, all I can think about is how easy it would be to push down my shorts, pull her underwear to one side, and slide all the way inside her tight pussy.

Fuck, don’t blow yet, Jack.

My tongue licks against hers. “You’ll get to touch me when I’ve made up for years of wanting you.”

I begin walking us to my bedroom, and her full tits bounce against my chest.

“I can’t believe you’ve wanted me for that long.”

I stop just at the entrance to my bedroom. “Kendra”—my lips find her collarbone as she tips her head back and moans—“I’ve had to endure years of watching an asshole mistreat the woman of my dreams.” I whisper against her pebbled skin, “And even if tonight is my only chance with you, when the sun rises tomorrow morning, you’ll know what it feels like to be worshipped.”