Page 18 of The Last Person (Baker Girls #5)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

brIAN

This must be what a stroke feels like.

I can’t move my limbs. My face is numb. It’s hard to breathe.

Because Hardy just—he just said…

“Are you… serious?” I ask, rubbing my hand over my heart. I’m not convinced any of this is real. Maybe that hit during the game killed me, and now I’m living in my personal version of heaven. Or hell. Depending on his answer.

He closes the gap between us and looks up at me, his brown eyes glassy and filled with emotion.

“I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life.

You’re the only person I can think about.

The only one I want. The thought of losing you to someone else is more than I can bear.

I know you want someone to love, someone to be with, to find your person.

Well, I’m standing right here. Choose me. ”

Holy shit. Holy shit.

He actually said those words. I reach down and pinch my leg, trying to reassure myself I’m not dreaming.

“You want to… date me?”

“I want so much more than that. Look, I know it’s a lot, and I don’t want to fuck up our friendship, but—”

His words die as I lurch forward, grab the side of his neck, and slant my mouth over his. If it’s a dream or a fantasy, I don’t care. I’m going to soak in every second I get.

I’m lightheaded and can barely breathe. Desire courses through me, and I don’t think it’s one-sided. It can’t be with how passionately he’s kissing me.

Something like a whimper sounds in his throat, and I kiss him harder.

He fists my shirt, pulling me closer as he runs his tongue over my bottom lip.

That’s all the invitation I need to thrust my tongue into his mouth.

This is everything I’ve wanted, and he’s handing himself over to me. He’s mine now.

Ryan Laurent Hardison is mine.

Our kisses are forceful and sloppy. Reckless and unhinged.

There’s nothing held back between us, and my heart is flying out of my chest.

This is what I was always supposed to be doing. He’s mine. My person. My love.

That’s probably too much too soon, but I know I love him, no doubt in my mind.

And as the depth of our emotional connection mixes with the physical, it only makes that clearer.

“Brian,” he breathes against my lips. I can feel the ache of his voice in my bones. That unrelenting desire.

I don’t want to break our kiss, and yet, I have to know.

Untangling myself from him, I rest my forehead against his, both of us breathing heavily.

I don’t get a chance to ask or say anything before his lips are on mine again.

This time, he’s claiming me. His hands slip down to my butt, and as he drags me closer, he rolls his hips toward me, and I feel his hard cock.

I bend my knees slightly, and push my hips forward, letting him feel me in return.

Then his cock brushes against mine, and I’m a goner.

We kiss and grind together, lost in each other.

“Hardy,” I groan.

Then our tongues are wrestling madly again as we grind against each other. I slip my hands under his shirt and break our kiss so I can pull it off him. I take in his toned chest and abs, then dive forward again, sucking on his neck.

“Brian. Fuck, I need more. I need everything.”

That makes me lift my lips and meet his eyes. “I need everything with you too.” I let out a couple of long breaths. “Starting with an explanation.” Forcing myself to take half a step back, I watch his reaction.

The first thing I notice are his swollen lips. Swollen from kissing me. Because somehow, Hardy wants me. This is the moment where all my idiocy hits me. “How long?” I croak out. “How long have you wanted me?”

“I’ve been questioning it for months now. Looking back, I realize a lot of my feelings for you that I associated with friendship have been something more. Over the last couple of weeks is when I figured it all out for sure.”

“That night at the club?” I ask, not sure I want the answer, but I have to know regardless.

“I was… testing myself. It’d been so long since I hooked up, and I needed to know if the reason was because I was comfortable staying in with you or because I didn’t want anyone but you.”

“And?”

His lips curve up. “I got my answer. I think I had it before I even left the floor. Because when I was dancing with that girl, I was watching you. I was hard because of you. And as soon as I tried to go off with her, it all faded away. All I could think about was you. Then I imagined kissing you…” A shiver runs through him, and I reach out, skimming my fingers along his jawline.

He makes a tortured noise and leans into the touch.

How stupid have I been? This dating app thing? He’s been right here, aching for me the way I ache for him.

And fuck, I’m supposed to be on my way to a date—or meetup—right now.

“Sorry, I don’t want to break a second of this moment, but I don’t want to be a complete asshole either.”

I pull out my phone, send a quick apologetic message, then toss my phone onto the couch. I don’t want any other interruptions tonight.

“The day you rescued me from the spider, were you—”

“I was about to fuck my hand to the thought of you. I’d never let myself go there before. And after seeing that…” He licks his lips. “I had one toy in my ass and one on my cock, and I came imagining us fucking.”

I groan in response, and he reaches for me, undoing the buttons of my shirt.

“Ryan…”

“How long has it been for you? How long have you wanted this?”

I hesitate for a second, then rub the back of my neck, heat blooming in my cheeks. “It’s a little embarrassing.”

“Tell me,” he whispers, taking my face in his hands, and I’ve never felt safer.

“At this point, probably close to a year. But I felt the sparks of something before then. There’s something about you.

You see me in a way no one ever has. Through all my layers, every piece of me, to the person I am at my core.

And you’ve always made me feel safe to be exactly who I am. With you, I’m home.”

Now it’s him dragging me to his lips. He demandingly sweeps his tongue against mine, holding me tighter.

Too much emotion swirls in my chest. Part of me wants to take him right here in the middle of the apartment. Make him mine. Another part wants to break down and cry. I’ve wanted this for so long, and he feels the same way I do. It’s really happening.

“Ryan,” I breathe, breaking our kiss.

“I like when you call me that.”

A laugh slips out. “It’s your name.”

“But everyone always calls me Hardy. I like when you call me Ryan.”

I run my fingers through his braids. “Ryan… what happens now?”

He takes half a step back and meets my eyes. “Now I’m yours. You’re mine. I don’t do things halfway. If I’m in, I’m all in. And there’s no one else I’d rather jump into the deep end with than you.”

I pull him closer again, dipping my head so my lips nearly brush his. “You have no idea what you do to me.”

“Show me.”

Without warning, I lift him up, and the gasp he emits goes straight to my cock.

“Fuck,” he rumbles, wrapping his legs around my waist.

“You like being carried?”

“I fucking love it. Almost as much as I love when you kiss me.”

He crushes his mouth against mine, and though it turns the walk back to my bedroom into more of a stumble, I don’t care. I’m savoring every moment like it’s the last one I’ll ever have.

Hardy is possessive and demanding as his tongue twists with mine, and it’s hard to keep walking, to not stop and give in to every desire right here in the hallway.

I pause for a moment, pressing him against the wall as I rut into him and kiss him harder. His pained moans have me rock hard. I’ve never been so desperate. Parts of me I didn’t know existed have come to life, and each one is trying to free itself from my body to get to him.

Gripping him tighter, I lift him off the wall and get all the way back to my bedroom, collapsing onto the bed with him.

I drag my lips from his mouth, down his neck and over his broad chest, lost in a primal desire for him.

He gasps, carding his fingers through my hair as I go lower, tugging his sweats and boxers down as I go.

His cock springs free, and I lick my lips before sucking him into my mouth.

“Fuck,” he whines. That sound is going to live rent-free in my mind forever. He does it again as I relax my throat and take him deep. “Yes, holy—I’m not going to last.”

I smile around his cock and keep going. I’ll get him hard again. Not that I’m in a rush. We’ve got all night to explore each other.

He tugs on my short hair, groaning louder with each bob of my head. Gently, I wrap my hand around his balls and massage them, then slip one finger behind them and massage the perineum.

“Right fucking there. Keep… ah… going…” He’s so whiny and breathless it makes my cock leak.

He tilts his hips so my finger slips back farther.

I flick my eyes up, but his head is tossed back in pleasure. His hands have slipped off my head, and he’s fisting the sheets. Another thing I commit to memory.

He tilts his hips again, and I slip my finger between his cheeks, pressing it lightly against his hole.

He presses against my hand, and I groan around his cock.

“More,” he whimpers, and slowly, I push one finger inside.

His hand lands back on my head, and he pulls hard on my hair as he cries out. “Brian… oh, fuck.”

Cum floods my mouth, and I drink it down, soaking in every deep moan and breathless whine. I don’t want to stop sucking him or let him go, but when he shudders, I finally do.

I hover on hands and knees above him, staring at the beads of sweat trailing down his dark skin. He’s beautiful. His head is still thrown back, eyes closed as he tries to catch his breath.

When his eyes finally open, they lock on mine immediately, and he wraps his arms around me, pulling me against him with a thud. Laughing, I shift onto my side so I don’t smother him.

“I’ve never come like that in my life,” he rumbles, burying his head in my shoulder.