Page 7

ETHAN

Despite her denials, Aurora has been teasing me all day, so I’m not surprised when I find her straddling my lap on the couch, not thirty seconds after we get our shoes off at her Tribeca apartment.

Her red lips are deliciously swollen from our kiss, and my mind flashes to her on her knees, those lips wrapped around my cock. She works her mouth along my jaw and down my throat, a sure way to turn my thoughts into reality if I don’t slow this down.

“Baby girl, we’re supposed to be talking.”

Her teeth sink into my skin, and my words come out somewhere between a groan of regret and one of pleasure.

Sitting up, she pulls her hoodie over her head. “Not a single time have we been able to resist each other long enough to talk.”

Like a magnet, my hands are irresistibly drawn to her tits, palming them over her shirt. “More reason for us to have a rare conversation.”

“Well, if you weren’t so fuckable.”

She grinds against my relentless hard-on, and I lose all restraint. I grip her waist and flex my hips. “I’m glad you think so, baby. It’ll make convincing you to come home and move in with me much easier.”

Her head pops up, brows furrowed. “Come home with you?”

“Yes. I meant what I said.”

“What do you mean exactly?”

It’s obvious to me, but I spell it out for her so there’s no confusion. “You and I together. Now. Return to LA. Be mine.”

The playful atmosphere vanishes faster than Ricky when I arrived. Aurora averts her gaze and shifts in my lap, a torturous silence falling between us.

I clench my jaw and urge my temper to remain in check. “At least give me a chance.”

She glances up, tears in her eyes. “I can’t.”

My mood plummets, the tips of my ears burning. The absolute last thing I want is my world on the other side of the country. “Why? You plan to stay in New York?”

“I can’t just abandon my job, and I can’t live with you without…” Becoming attached . She doesn’t have to say it; it’s in the way she clings to me, the way she surrenders to me. “I’m not your ex, and I’m not playing house until someone of her caliber comes along.”

My heart beats an angry, violent rhythm. Does she think I’d toss her aside? Leave her and my child? Even if I previously said I didn’t want a relationship.

I try to hold back—I really do—but I shoot my hand out and wrap my fingers around her delicate throat. “Why do you think so fucking terrible of me?”

“I don’t. Don’t you get that? I think terrible of me .” Her tears fall, and she takes a shuddering breath. “Jackson waited, what? Four whole hours before he was with someone else? Why wouldn’t you do the same? I’m nothing?—”

I tighten my fist, silencing her. “Stop. Don’t say another fucking word.” My voice has never been this vicious toward her, and I hope she understands it comes from a place of concern, not malice. “I don’t want to be with anyone else. Get that through your pretty little head. Why would I?”

I loosen my grip, but she doesn’t respond.

“That’s the second time you’ve mentioned my ex today. Start talking.”

I’m a demanding asshole, but fuck, she trips every bit of my self-control.

She lowers her sheepish gaze, and I growl, “Look at me.”

Her eyes meet mine—after rolling—and I swear, I’m bending her over my knee next.

“My grandmother and I Googled you. She wanted to see pictures of you.”

She was gossiping about me, and despite being frustrated and pissed, a satisfied smirk tugs at my lips.

We have so much to learn about each other. She doesn’t fully comprehend my need for dominance. She desires it, but she has no idea what it involves. If she did, she wouldn’t be setting me off constantly.

Unless she likes my reaction, which may very well be the case, at least partly, I can’t say I don’t enjoy her taunting me.

I have yet to meet her grandmother, and we don’t take pictures together as she did with Jackson. I add it to my list of things that’ll change, along with her putting herself down, but I need her to trust me first.

My anger fades, and my tone softens. “And what? You saw photos of me with my ex and thought…?”

“Do we have to do this?” she whines, trying to scramble off my lap.

Unfortunately for her, I’m quicker. I twist my torso and toss her onto the couch, pinning her with my body.

“Yes, it affects how you think of us.” I raise her shirt and kiss her slightly rounded stomach.

I splay my hand over our baby possessively.

This is mine. She’s mine. “Tell me, Aurora. I can’t fix what I don’t know. ”

She answers in a flurry of words. “Your ex is successful and wealthy, and maybe you wouldn’t have left if she hadn’t been unfaithful.”

I trail kisses over her belly. “I wasn’t happy. Catching her with someone else was my wake-up call, my escape. You make me happy, happier than I can remember.”

Her retort is immediate. “You deserve better. I’m a mess.”

“You are.” I lean back and strip off her leggings or yoga pants or whatever the fuck these things are that highlight her fine ass.

“But I’d have you no other way.” Grabbing her by the thighs, I yank her to me, working her shirt over her head.

“So stop putting yourself down. You’re testing my patience tonight. ”

Finally, she gives me that flirty smile and those adoring eyes. “That’s too bad. I like you all growly and rough.”

I bite her nipple through her bra. “Do you? I’ll have to come up with better punishments.”

She tangles her fingers in my hair. “Please don’t. I love you exactly as you are.”

And there it is, what I’ve been attempting to avoid since finding out we were irrevocably connected—attachment and the dreaded ‘ I love you.’

I don’t know when I stopped pushing away the idea of something permanent and let my desires take a front seat in my brain, but now, it’s everything I want.

Alone with her, there’s no panic over our relationship interfering with coaching, no fear of being exposed publicly and dealing with my ex, whose endearments were never real.

I remove my shirt, and her soft hands glide over the contours of my stomach, leaving an inferno in their wake. She unbuttons my jeans and palms my length over my boxer briefs.

My breath hitches. “You keep doing that, and we won’t reach the bedroom.”

Raw lust gleams in her devilish eyes. “Screw the bedroom. You can fuck me on every surface here.”

“That’s my dirty girl.”

I’m hard and leaking. I’ve had a merciless erection since kissing her in Central Park. Her touch has me aching, and when she gets my boxers down and her lips wrap around the head of my cock, her tongue flicking the sensitive underside, desire becomes desperation.

“Fuck, baby. Lie back and strip. I need to fill that pretty pussy.”

She does precisely that, gracefully revealing every erotic, stunning inch of her while I nearly fall off the couch, struggling to get my jeans and boxers off in a hurry.

“At some point, I swear, I’m taking my time with you in a bed.”

I push inside her glistening cunt, and her sweet giggle turns into a seductive groan.

“Always so wet for me.” I spread my fingers over her ass and raise her hips to mine as I sink in to the hilt. “God, you fit me like a glove.”

She wraps her legs around my waist. “Finally. Now?—”

A hard thrust has her crying out, her nails digging into my wrists.

“Open that smart mouth other than to scream for me, and you won’t walk straight tomorrow.” I slam into her to emphasize my point because, honestly, if she’s talking, I’m not doing my job right.

“Who’s in control here, Aurora?” I continue my relentless pace, bottoming out with each slap of my hips.

“You.”

That one word unleashes something feral within me. “Good girl.” Thrust . “Always me.” Thrust. “Remember that after you come on my cock.”

City lights shine through the terrace windows, highlighting her smooth, tanned skin and the bounce of her perfectly round breasts with every stroke.

“Fuck…” Her lips part in a silent moan, and she arches her back, deepening the angle. “Ethan.”

She whimpers my name, and my veins alight with ecstasy. I move her legs to my shoulders and pound into her. “Don’t think about leaving me, Aurora,” I say roughly. “It’ll never happen.”

My wild words and our heavy breaths become nothing but primal sounds of pleasure.

My gaze alternates between her tits and watching our bodies come together so beautifully.

I’m close from her edging me all day, and the sight of her bare pussy stretched around me, taking me so fucking well, has my balls hugging my shaft.

I find her clit, circling my thumb in sync with my thrusts, and her walls tighten.

I suck air through my teeth, hissing, “Damn, baby. You’re going to make me come.”

Her lilting moans turn high-pitched, and her cunt grips me. My knees grow weak, and I collapse over her, careful of her stomach. I fist her hair and bite into her shoulder until she’s coming harder, convulsing around me a second time, soaking my cock.

“Oh God, Ethan,” she cries, her legs trembling around my waist.

“Jesus, fuck, Aurora…” I tuck my face into her neck and grit my teeth. A wave of emotions crash over me with each electrifying jolt. “So fucking good… Holy fucking shit.”