25
Nick tugged Jules into the elevator after him, weaving his fingers through hers as he jabbed at the button for his floor with his free hand. A few other people from the club stumbled into the elevator, one of the women laughing loudly and swaying dangerously on her sky-high heels. Although the champagne had been flowing freely at the after party, Nick had only had one glass, wanting to stay sharp and clear to remember the night he won both the WFC belt and a shot at a future with Jules. The night that one journey ended, and a new one began.
The elevator doors slid closed, sealing away the music and voices from the club. He knew he should feel guilty about not staying longer—after all, it was his party—but he’d barely had time to talk to Jules, never mind get her alone.
And he really, really needed her alone. Now.
She sighed and relaxed into him, her head on his shoulder, her thumb sliding over his knuckles in a slow caress, and he bit his lip to suppress the laugh he felt bubbling up inside. All night he’d been riding a high of relief, happiness, and hope that had something to do with winning his fight, but a hell of a lot more to do with Jules.
She loved him. She’d gone and shown him—in front of everyone—that she was willing to fight for them. That even though it was hard for her, she wasn’t so broken that she didn’t know how to love, as he’d feared. And that kind of love, the hard-won, rarified kind—it was hard to see it sometimes. But he knew now that it had been there. He’d let his own shit get in the way, blinding him to it. To what they could have and what they could be. And now, with no secrets between them and a fresh start, he knew he wanted it all with her. His Jules. Always.
She slipped her free hand behind him and palmed his ass with a firm squeeze. Heat crackled over his skin, and he glanced down. She looked up at him, a sweet smile on her lips and a naughty glint in her eyes.
He dipped his head and grazed his lips over her ear. “You look so goddamn gorgeous tonight,” he whispered.
A flush rose on her cheeks, stoking the heat flickering through his body. “You look like someone who got his face punched, champ,” she whispered back. Her nose wrinkled in a smile, and he stuck his tongue out at her before pulling her tighter against him.
The elevator doors opened onto the twenty-seventh floor, and Nick smiled politely at the drunk group as he and Jules slipped past them. He knew they’d recognized him by the collective gasps and whispers as he moved past, but the elevator doors closed again, leaving him blissfully alone with Jules.
Part of the tournament’s prize included a stay in one of the MGM Grand’s suites, and Nick planned to make excellent use of it. They’d barely made it five steps down the hall before Jules laid her hands on his chest and backed him into the wall.
“Three things,” she said. Her eyes shone at him, so open that he could practically see her heart in them. His own heart tripped over itself at the way she was trying, peeling back all of her layers and leaving herself vulnerable. He knew that didn’t come easy for her. She raised one of her hands from his chest to his unbruised cheek. “Thing one: I’m so proud of you, Nick. For winning the tournament. For training hard. For facing down the adversity thrown your way. I spent the past couple of months watching your dedication and your discipline from a front-row seat, and I know there’s no one more deserving than you.”
Nick felt something in his chest soften at her words as they melted the very last bit of the hard black knot he’d been carrying around for days.
“Thing two: I love you. More than I’ve ever loved anyone. I can’t promise I’ll always say or do the right thing, but I need you to know that no matter what, I love you. You’re the most important person to me. You’re my everything.” Her voice shook on the last syllable, and she cleared her throat softly.
He would never get tired of hearing her say those words. He’d wanted them so badly, had been so crushed when he thought they were out of reach. But now, here they were, freely given, and they meant everything to him.
He opened his mouth to speak, to give some of that sweetness back to her, but she moved her hand from his cheek to his mouth, quieting him with a finger against his lips.
“Thing three: I need you inside me more than I’ve ever needed anything.” With her hand fisted in his shirt, she brought his mouth to hers. Her kiss was filled with hunger and need, and Nick moaned as her tongue slipped against his. He managed to break the kiss, his lungs heaving.
“Then unless you want me to fuck you in the hallway, let’s find our room.”
She leaned away from him and glanced up and down the deserted hallway. For a split second, he thought she was going to ask him to do just that, and he’d be lying if he said the idea didn’t send his blood racing south. But then she nodded and slipped her hand into his.
Silently, he led her down the hall and pulled the key card from his pocket. The door opened and he pulled Jules inside. The lights came on automatically, illuminating the suite in soft yellow tones. A living room with a bar and huge flat-screen TV stood before them, and Nick could see the corner of a king-sized bed through the open bedroom door. The lights of the Strip twinkled up at them through the massive floor-to-ceiling window taking up the entire far wall.
Jules curled her fingers around his belt buckle and spun him to face her, pulling him toward her. She backed into the door with a soft thud, and he caged her in, his hands on either side of her face. A tremble worked its way through her, her lip caught between her teeth. He smiled, hot, possessive satisfaction flashing through him at the need shining in her gorgeous blue eyes. He dipped his head and kissed up her neck, catching her earlobe between his teeth. She moaned softly.
With a groan, he kissed her hard and deep. Jules writhed against him, rubbing against his cock, hard and throbbing for her.
“I want your mouth on me,” she panted, nipping at his bottom lip and then soothing the bite with her tongue.
He buried his face in her neck as he started pulling down the zipper of her tight black dress, grasping it with slightly clumsy fingers. Her dress gaped open at the back and slid down her shoulders. With a shrug, she worked it down to her hips and then pushed it the rest of the way down. It fell to the floor in a pool of fabric at her feet.
He skimmed a hand up her spine and found the clasp of her lacy red bra before popping it open and pulling it down her arms. He palmed one of her breasts, her hard pink nipple caught between two of his fingers. He raised his free hand to her other breast, squeezing them together and dipping his head to drag his tongue across first one nipple and then the other. The sight of her breasts filling his hands, pushed together sent a wave of possessive heat rippling down his spine.
He met her eyes, so open and bright with love, with happiness, with need, that he almost wanted to shout—to do something to release the pressure of containing something so big and so bright as the knowledge that Jules loved him. Holding her gaze, he dropped to his knees in front of her, sliding her red thong down her legs. Lifting first one, and then her other foot, he removed her heels and helped her step out of the dress puddled around her feet. He bit at the soft skin of her thigh, and her fingers curled against the door, scraping lightly over the wood.
“Mine,” he said, his voice husky. Urgency pounded through him. “Mine,” he repeated, biting at her other thigh, leaving a small mark. Branding her with his mouth. She let out a ragged gasp, her hips moving in a slow, needy circle.
“Yours,” she said softly.
Nick savored that word, pulling it deep into himself. He slid his hands from her hips down the outsides of her legs, his fingertips rasping against her soft, warm skin. With gentle pressure on one of her calves, he lifted her leg and rested it on his shoulder. She was open before him, pink and wet. He let out a gruff moan.
“All mine,” he said before closing his mouth over her pussy in a hot, slow, open-mouthed kiss.
“Nick!” She tunneled her hands into his hair, her nails raking over his scalp. He steadied her with his hands on her hips and swirled his tongue over her clit. She swiveled her hips and ground herself against his mouth, whimpering as he worked her with his lips and tongue. Her taste filled his mouth, turning him on even more, making him even more desperate for her. Reaching down with one hand, leaving the other on her hip, he managed to pry open his belt and unzip his pants, freeing his cock. With a rough grip, he stroked himself as he licked and sucked her, using his hand to take the sharp edge off the need pounding through him.
She shifted against the door and let out a loud moan. “Holy shit, Nick,” she said, her voice shaky. “That’s so hot.” Electricity zapped through his veins, and he glanced up at her. He swirled his tongue over her swollen clit, feasting on everything she had. Her moans, her sensitive, swollen flesh, her taste, her scent. Feasting on it all like a goddamn king.
“You taste so fucking good, baby,” he said, his lips moving against her as he spoke. He licked her clit with harder, faster strokes, noticing that the insides of her thighs were glossy.
He scraped his teeth over her and then sucked her clit into his mouth, stroking it with his tongue. Her hips bucked and her legs started to shake. She let out a loud cry and then a breathless string of “Oh God, Nick, oh God, Nick, oh God, Nick,” like she was coming and praying at the same time. Her clit pulsed against his tongue as he drank in her orgasm.
Normally, he would’ve stayed exactly where he was, eating her sweet little pussy until she couldn’t take it anymore, but the need to get inside her was obliterating everything else. He eased her leg down off of his shoulder and rose from his knees. He dipped his head and kissed her, sliding his tongue against hers in a slow rhythm.
“You see how good you taste?” he asked, and she let out a strangled sound, half moan, half sob, as she frantically began undoing the buttons of his shirt, pulling impatiently at the fabric. Her nails scraped lightly over his chest, and his heart hammered against his ribs. It felt too big for his body, overfull with love and need and happiness. His shirt fell open and she tugged it off his shoulders. Her breasts pressed into his chest, and the sensation of being skin to skin with her sent fresh urgency coursing through his veins. He shoved his pants and boxer briefs down his hips as Jules bit at his mouth. His pants fell, and he toed off his shoes, kicking free of it all, something wild and savage moving through him. He tore his mouth from hers, his heart stopping and restarting at how gorgeously disheveled she looked, her hair messy, her eyes bright, her cheeks flushed, her lips swollen.
Unable to help himself, he lowered his head and bit where her neck and shoulder met, nipping hard enough to leave a mark. His entire body pulsed—with need, with love, with possession—and he slid his hands to her ass, palming her cheeks and lifting her. She wrapped her legs around his hips, and he trailed biting kisses across her skin as he moved toward the bed. They tumbled down in a mess of limbs and hungry mouths, an urgent desperation between them, so palpable that Nick could taste it.
“Fuck me, Nick,” she rasped, writhing beneath him. “Hard and deep. Make me feel you.”
With a growling moan, Nick rose to his knees and flipped her over, pulling her up onto all fours. His hands were rough on her hips as he lined himself up with her entrance, and he knew he couldn’t wait a second longer. He plunged into her with one savage stroke, burying himself in her tight, wet heat. She cried out, her hands fisted in the duvet. She pressed her face into the bed, her ass high in the air as she shoved her hips back against him.
He’d expected to feel calmer once he got inside her, but he didn’t. No, claiming her like this only made him feel more desperate. With a growl, he withdrew and then thrust back into her, hard. She clenched around him and his vision faded out around the edges. Distantly, he knew he was in pain—his face, his ribs—but all he could feel was Jules and that bright, possessive heat filling him up from the inside.
She moaned and begged, her voice muffled by the bedding. He bent forward, thrusting in and out of her with long, deep drags of his cock, and trailed biting kisses over her shoulders, her neck, her back. Marking her skin with his teeth, and then soothing the bites with his lips and tongue. Wanting to claim every inch of her body with his.
She glanced up at him over her shoulder. “I love you, Nick. I love you.” Her words came out on a breathless pant.
He slowed his thrusts. “I love you too, baby. So much. God, so much.” She clenched around him, her body pulling at him from where they were joined. As though every part of her was welcoming every part of him. Letting him in, no defenses, no walls, all his to have and cherish and keep.
Something broke inside him, and he drove into her, harder and faster. Searing hot pleasure shot down his spine, slamming through him. His balls felt heavy and tight, pressure coiling low in his gut.
Jules screamed his name, and her pussy began to convulse around him, nearly sending him crashing over the edge. He held on until her orgasm subsided, somehow managing to ride it out, and then followed her over, coming buried deep inside her.
His limbs felt heavy, a peacefulness settling over him. Jules glanced up at him over her shoulder again, and when their eyes met, a smile, wide and bright, spread across her face. God, that smile was everything. She was everything.
He swallowed, wondering if he had enough blood in his brain to get his mouth to form words. “I’m never letting you go.”
She made a soft purring sound. “I like the sound of that.”
He pulled her toward him and scooped her up into his arms. “You’re mine.”
She kissed his neck, soft and sweet. “And you’re mine.”
Laughing and kissing her, he carried her into the shower, where they started all over again, this time taking it slow with soapy touches and long, lingering kisses.
The rest of the night went by in a blur of hot sex, talk of the future, and contented silence. The walls between them were well and truly gone, nothing but rubble and dust on which they could build something new. Something stronger and better. Something real. He knew they’d have challenges, but he was ready for them.
Eventually Jules fell asleep, her head on his chest, her arm flung over his stomach, her breathing slow and even. But Nick was too awake to sleep, and so with Jules nestled against him, he watched the sun rise over the Vegas Strip.
The dawn of a new day. A fresh start, full of hope and possibilities. Full of love and happiness. And whatever that future held, he knew that he and Jules would face it.
Together.