Page 42 of Waiting For A Girl Like You (Haven House #4)

“My tongue first.” Moving past her, he stretched out on the bed and tapped the wood headboard above him. “You’re going to want to hold on.”

She didn’t hesitate. Crawling up his body, she kissed and licked her way to his mouth before climbing higher, positioning her knees on either side of his head.

When she lowered onto his tongue, she let out a low, shuddering moan.

Giving her ass a sharp smack, he gripped her hips to coax her into a slow grind. Tongue deep and mouth relentless, he used his nose to nuzzle her clit with each pass. Her rhythm built gradually until she was frantically riding his face, her moans echoing off the cottage walls.

It only took a few more strokes before an orgasm tore through her, and groans turned to begging.

Dragging her down by the hips, he adjusted her above his cock.

She was wet and ready, her hands firmly gripping the headboard as she lowered herself onto him.

Inch by inch, she took him inside until she was fully seated with a broken gasp.

“Don’t let go of that headboard.”

And that was the only warning she was going to get.

Mercilessly. Brutally. He fucked, the heavy pounding of his cock robbing him of all thoughts.

There were screams and moans, some his and some hers.

Like the good girl that she was, Annabeth held on to the headboard for dear life, taking everything he gave while whimpering for more.

“Is this what you wanted?” he growled, no longer recognizing his own voice. Releasing the hold on her hips, he looped his arms around her back to hold her suspended above him as his cock slammed in and out. “Is this how my woman wants to be fucked?”

“Y-yes,” she sobbed. “Yes— God —yes.”

Another orgasm hit, and her guttural cries were the sound his entire body craved. Forever. He would want this forever. The feel of her holding him so tight, the pulse of her pleasure working his length. He would crave this every day for the rest of eternity.

“You’re so fucking beautiful.” He bounced her harder, grinning when her eyes rolled back. “You take me so good.”

She cried out her agreement, grinding on his dick as if she were riding for her life. The trembling of her small frame intensified, and she let go of the headboard, wrapping her arms around his head when he began to suck and lavish her breasts with his tongue.

Not wanting her orgasm to end, he flipped them around and laid her on her back. “My turn.”

Securing one hand on the headboard and another on her chest, Rowan thrust into her without control. His girl moved with him, the slap of their bodies driving him to fuck faster when her nails scraped his shoulders, and her punctuated cries ripped through the room.

When her next orgasm hit, she clamped down so tight he saw stars. He arched higher, positioning himself so he could watch her tight body pulse around his cock.

“Fuck, Annabeth. Look at you.” He couldn’t tear his eyes from the sight. Never. Not in a million years would he ever stop this. “Look at my good girl.”

Ruined .

Annabeth Howard, with her wicked smile and terrifying brilliance, had ruined him in the most perfect way, and he would never recover.

“I love you,” he choked out, spine bowing as his orgasm hit. “I love you.”

Goosebumps covered him, and he collapsed, yet still unable to stop rocking into her until every last drop filled the condom. Latching onto her throat, he dragged her lips to his, softening her cries with his kiss .

“How much time do we have?” she whispered when they came up for air. “I want that again.”

A quick check of his watch had him grinning. “That was only six minutes. We’ve got time.”

He managed to have her once more, thinking he could last a little longer, but nope. Not even close to possible. They were deep in the third act when the countdown buzzed again.

“No!” she cried beneath him, her hips rocking as he pounded into her with desperate force. “Don’t stop. Please—”

“I have to,” he groaned, not slowing in the slightest and even increasing the strength of his thrusting. “But we’re going to figure out how to finish. I can’t— fuck —I can’t live without this.”

Another buzz. Two minutes left.

Bracing his hands under her thighs, he spread her wide. “Come for me. One more time.”

She was already there, crying out as her orgasm hit. It was all he needed, and he followed her in a surge of heat, his groans of pleasure drowning out the second warning ping.

“One minute.”

He pulled out in a rush, lightheaded and stumbling into the bathroom like a drunk man. “Get your clothes on,” he shouted as he worked the condom off and into the wastebasket. “The cameras are about to go live, and everyone will get an eyeful if we’re not dressed.”

Falling off the bed when she struggled to rise, Annabeth’s footsteps thundered down the hall as she searched for her dress in the dark. He came busting out of the bathroom after her, snagging his pants and shirt off the floor.

The high-pitched beeping from his phone reached a dizzying speed until it silenced right as he zipped his pants close. They stood frozen in the hallway, breathing hard and laughing at each other’s disheveled state.

“Is it back on?” she panted.

Rowan’s heart continued to hammer in his chest, and he glanced up at the single camera above Annabeth’s head. The light clicked to blue. “We’re live.”

The shrill calibration tone echoed through the cottage, demanding a manual passcode reset. He hadn’t realized she’d grabbed the phone in their hurry to get dressed .

He reached to take the phone. “I need to put in my password.”

“I’ve got it.”

Rowan winced. She knew the old password. “Let me do it.”

Typing rapidly, she waved him off. “I said, I’ve got it.”

The phone let out a rumbling buzz, the security lights immediately flashing at the incorrect entry. “Annabeth, give me the phone.”

“Did you change the password?” She ignored him, walking into the living room. “Or maybe I typed it in wrong.”

“I changed it.”

“To what?”

“Give me the phone.”

Her head snapped up, and she stared at him as if he were insane. “What’s the new password?”

Running a hand through his hair, he gave up. “Annabeth.”

“Yeah, Annabeth1992, right?”

“McIntyre.”

She blinked at him, her big brown eyes going round. “What?”

“Annabeth space McIntyre is the password.”

Already ruined by her, the woman he loved broke him wholly with her next words. “Oh, Rowan. No.”

That was all it took.

The world inside him crashed down in a raging ball of fire. He snatched the phone from her and punched in the code, ending the calibration and plunging the house into silence.

“Rowan—”

He turned to the front door, giving her his back. “Let’s get back to the house.”

“Rowan, we need to talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

Fuck. He sounded like a goddamn child. They did need to talk, but all eyes were on them again, and he didn’t want every single person to witness his soul being stripped into nothing. That absolute clear denial ringing in her words told him she meant it.

No.

Her answer to forever was no .

“Look at me,” she whispered .

This was his own fault. This was always going to be the way they ended.

He thought he could fight it. He had been fighting it.

Every second of every day, he had thought he could make her see that he was worth it.

That he was worth the fear and the uncertainty that plagued her, but he was wrong. So very fucking wrong.

Turning around, he gave her a half-hearted smile and tried to make a joke. “I’m sorry I was rough,” he said, his tone quieter now. “Want me to carry you?”

She stepped in close, chin lifted. “I love you. I will love you for the rest of my life.”

The truth was there again, and while he should have been swooping her up in his arms to kiss, he just couldn’t. He didn’t have it in him. “But,” he replied gruffly, tired of the fight. “There’s always a but .”

“But I’m never going to marry you, Rowan. You should know this. I would never be so selfish.”

“How the fuck is marrying me selfish?”

“Tying you to me legally?” Her expression grew dark, and she swung away from him to sit in one of the recliners. “That’s selfish. Loving you and being with you is one thing. But I’d always want you to have an out.”

“Watch what you say next.” He moved before he could stop himself, caging her in with his hands on the arms of the chair. “If you’re about to tell me that you won’t marry me because you think I’ll need a way out—then this is over.”

The stubborn glare in her gaze slipped, and while it was cruel of him, he relished the fear replacing it. “You don’t mean that.”

“The hell I don’t,” he snarled, keeping his voice low. “I am sick of the buts. Sick of thinking we’re getting somewhere, only to end up in another goddamn loop.”

“You’ve never wanted marriage. Or did you forget that I was your best friend before we became this? That I was the one you spent countless hours talking to about life and how marriage and kids were never something you would want.”

“We didn’t become this. We’ve always been this .

” He held her by the chin. “I’ve never wanted another woman the way I want you.

I have never—in my whole fucking life—been in love.

Never once. Not until Annabeth Howard strutted out the back door of Haven House and straight into my worthless fucking heart.

So watch what the hell you say about giving me a way out.

There is no fucking way out, not for me. ”

She jerked free of his hold, but he wasn’t done. Not by a long shot.

“And to listen to you continue to insult me by thinking I would ever want to be anywhere except at your side as your husband is taking it too far.” He pushed off the recliner to loom over her.

“What’s worse is I haven’t even asked you.

I haven’t even started the conversation, yet you’ve already decided. ”