Tess
THERE’S A NOISE, and I awake with a start.
For a moment I feel disorientated and it takes a minute to gain my bearings. I can’t immediately place my surroundings. Then, as my eyelids flutter open, I see Nick lowering himself, squatting down beside me. His sleepy blue eyes are watching me with intensity.
Alarmed, I sit up and look around the dimly lit room. “Where’s Max?”
Nick places his hand on my shoulder to calm me. “The power is back on and I just brought him upstairs to his bed.”
Okay, the creaky staircase is the noise I heard. Relieved, I flop back down, not ready to move. “What time is it?” I ask groggily.
“Almost six.”
I groan. “In the morning?”
“In the morning,” he reassures me, offering me his hand. “Come on, I’ll help you off the floor. It’s time to get up anyway.”
Declining, I roll to my side and peek up at Nick through my lashes. “God, it feels like I never went to sleep.”
“That’s because it was almost two before you stopped talking.”
To shield the lights from the kitchen, I tug the blanket up over my head. “That’s so not true. You were the one doing all the talking.”
“Whatever,” he says. “I’m going to go for a run. Do you want a hand getting up or not?”
Lowering the covers, I sit up and look out the window at the still heavily falling snow. “You’re going outside in this weather? Are you nuts? I think I’ll stay right here where it’s warm.”
Nick laughs and flops down beside me on his back. “You have a point. I think I’ll hit the treadmill at my office later today.”
I laugh too, and groan a little when I shift in my pile of blankets from the lack of comfort that comes from lying on the floor. “Wow, you have a treadmill at your office?”
“Not just a treadmill, an entire gym. Come by later if you want and workout.”
I laugh again. “I haven’t worked out in months. I’m not sure I remember how.”
“Then you really should come by. I could give you a pointer or two to help you get back on track.”
My eyes dart to the spot where his long-sleeve t-shirt has lifted, and then my gaze slowly slides up his hard body until it lands on his face. “Right. So I can make a fool of myself,” I respond, hearty laughter still in my voice. “I think I’ll pass, thank you very much.”
Nick’s staring at me again with that same intensity I saw when I first woke up. This time though, his breathing is hitched, and I can’t help but wonder if he’s thinking the same thing I am.
Still laughing, I fall onto my back and keep my focus on him.
“God, you have a beautiful laugh,” he says hoarsely.
My entire body reacts to the look he’s giving me, and all I can do is keep staring. I have no words, no smartass comeback, nothing.
Moments pass where all we share is a look. It’s a look that screams, “I want you, do you want me?”
Slowly, Nick nods his head.
At the same time, I nod mine.
And then Nick is rolling, shifting his body, and in a beat he’s above me looking down into my eyes. Within moments, his body is covering mine with the twisted blankets around his hips. He maneuvers himself until my thighs are spread and I can feel his heavy erection through the fabric of his track pants right between my legs.
“I want you,” he rasps, grinding his hips into mine in the most delicious way.
“I want you too,” I respond breathlessly, lifting my pelvis to meet his slow and distinct movements.
He pushes some stray pieces of hair from my eyes. “Are you sure about this?” he whispers.
“I’m sure,” I whisper back.
Without another word, Nick quickly gets to his feet. The fire is still roaring. Nick must have stoked it when he woke, and I suddenly feel extremely warm.
With my heart pounding, I watch him as he strides toward the kitchen. Watch his long lean body, watch the confidence in his walk, watch the pure male who might have decided against this very poor decision we both made days ago but are just now acting on. But then he picks up his wallet and pulls out a condom. When he strides back in my direction, there is purpose intent on his face. And my heart pounds even more.
Standing above me with his brilliant blue eyes on me, he drops the condom to the ground and pulls his t-shirt off. I stare at his ripped abs, biting my lip, wanting to taste him so bad I can hardly stand it.
There is no hesitation in my next move. With my gaze locked on him, I sit up and slowly unbutton my own shirt in spite of my trembling fingers. He watches me, his chest rising and falling even faster than moments ago. Once I shrug out of the oversized shirt, my small breasts are completely exposed to him.
Nick sucks in a breath. “God, you’re so fucking beautiful. I can’t wait to be inside you.”
I can’t wait either. I want this. And right now. So, I pull my leggings off, panties too, and sit naked in front of the fire. In front of him.
If Nick is surprised by my forwardness, he doesn’t show it. Instead, he strips out of his own pants and then finally lowers himself down to me.
He takes his time putting himself back in the position he had been in before he went to retrieve a condom. It’s slow, torturous, and amazing. His breath whispers across my neck. His skin feels so good against my own. And his body is like it was made for mine. Once he is pressing firmly against me, he presses his lips to mine.
Our first kiss is with the both of us completely naked. Completely open to each other. Vulnerable. And both more than ready to be together.
His lips move soft, then hard, against mine, and then he pushes his tongue into my mouth. Soon our tongues begin to move together, and his kiss consumes me.
My hands slide down his back to his firm ass and I pull him against me. “I want you inside me, now.”
I thought he’d fight me. Tell me he was in control. Show that alpha male dominance I have seen so many times. He does none of those things. Instead, Nick reaches with one hand and retrieves the condom he’d tossed beside me. My pulse races with an odd excitement, one I never recall having prior to intercourse. I watch him tear away the wrapper with his teeth and sheath himself with the latex, and I’m completely overtaken by lust.
It all starts to happen very quickly after that. He is obviously just as desperate as me for this. His fingers slide inside me, and as soon as he feels how wet I am, he shudders. Within seconds, his fingers are gone and he slides his cock into me. It’s with his first thrust that I realize I was wrong—he is the one in control, this is what he wanted too, and all I can do is gasp because he feels so good.
Moments after he starts to thrust, he pauses in his movements. He’s still staring down at me, but this time his eyes are tender in a way I’ve never seen them. “I’ve wanted you from the first time I saw you at Ethan and Fiona’s engagement party. Everything I’ve done and said to you since that night has been to fight the need to have you.”
I open my mouth to speak, unsure of what to say.
He prevents me from saying anything with a heart-stopping kiss, and around the kiss he says, “Don’t say anything.”
I don’t.
Nick starts to move again, pulling back and easing forward, pushing gently until he is all the way inside me again.
Almost instinctively, I reach up, wrapping my arms around his neck, and holding onto him tightly.
Our bodies tangle and clash, twisting and rolling until I am breathless and panting. Nick groans low in his throat and again he surprises me when he pushes his arms underneath me so he can hold me closer against his body.
He’s fucking me hard and fast, and making love to me soft and slow, all at the same time. I’ve thought about little more than this for days, but never had I imagined it to be this good.
Nick’s hips arch fluidly, his cock slides in and out of my body until I am practically dizzy with pleasure.
His body is pressed so hard against mine that I can feel every twitch, feel every time his muscles coil and bunch with the effort of his movements, feel every ounce of energy he expels.
In fact, we are so close I don’t think there is a part of me he isn’t touching in some way. It’s like he can’t get enough of me, and the thought sends a shiver racing down my spine.
It hits me when he tears his mouth from mine to press a line of kisses down my jaw to my neck that I thought sex with Nick would be quick, dirty, and emotionally bereft.
This is anything but.
Suddenly, I’m overwhelmed by my feelings, and I’m climbing that endless mountain of pleasure even faster.
Nick is surrounding me, touching me, filling me, filling me in places that have been hollow and aching for way longer than three months.
Soon I find myself hugging him to me. Like him, I can’t stand for the barest of inches to separate us. When I am close to reaching the top of the mountain, I cling to him so tightly, I’m sure I will leave marks. It’s then that my body starts to shake with an uncertainty as to what this is and why it is happening,
Perhaps feeling I’m close, or perhaps close himself, Nick rocks into me, deeper, harder, faster.
Still uncertain as to what is happening, why there is such a profound connection between the two of us, I close my eyes.
“Tess.” Nick’s tender voice pulls me from my scattered thoughts. “Look at me.”
I open my eyes to see him staring intently down at me.
“Are you okay?”
I nod.
“You sure?”
Again I nod, and this time I hug him tighter. “Kiss me.”
He does. Fiercely.
I shiver and arch my body.
“How close are you?” he whispers.
“Almost there,” I whisper back.
“Tell me what you need to get there?”
What I need? I’ve never been asked that, and I answer with the one word my body is telling me will send me over the edge. “You.”
His eyes flash and his jaw clenches. Then he is kissing me again. Harder. Hot. Nipping. Licking. Sucking. Until I am breathing his air and he is breathing mine.
We are locked together so tightly that I have no idea how he manages to keep thrusting. With each movement he makes, my release is building low and deep. So deep, I feel like I’m being turned inside out. “Oh, God,” I moan. And then I’m on the top of that mountain and for a moment I’m afraid to fall. Afraid of what will happen when it’s all over, but it’s too late, and before I can stop myself, I’m coming around his cock.
“Fuck,” Nick groans as he begins to move faster, harder. Any control he had is gone and he’s pushing into me so deep that I gasp at his depth.
That’s when I begin to unravel. I thought I’d come just seconds ago, but now my orgasm is owning me, taking me over, making me slick and wet, and out of control.
I squeeze him tightly, never wanting this feeling to end. Gasping his name, I close my eyes and the world blurs around me. All I can feel is him. On top of me. His mouth on my skin. His cock buried deep. The noises he is making. Him. All of him. All around me.
When I start to float downward, my body feels weightless, sated, free. It’s a strange new feeling. I can’t quite grasp it.
I’m not sure I want to.
Nick collapses on top of me. His body is limp and his chest heaves with exertion, but he feels so good, and I want him to stay right where he is.
I press my lips to his neck and start to suck.
Nick laughs, and rolls so that I’m on top of him. “You, Tess Winters, are incredible.”
I look down at him. “You aren’t so bad yourself.”
“You mean for a jerk,” he jokes.
I narrow my eyes at him. “Stop with that, please.”
He smiles and kisses me softly. “Since you said please.”
This time I roll my eyes.
He kisses me again, this time harder. “Let me get rid of the condom and then I want to do that again, but this time I want to taste you first.”
With my legs still shaking and my body still trembling, I roll onto my back. “We have at least another hour before Max wakes, so if you insist.”
Nick cocks a brow and then makes his way upstairs. Within seconds he is back beside me, reaching for me and tugging me on top of him. “I want to say that was unexpected, but that would be a lie. After the last five days it wasn’t,” he laughs.
“No, it wasn’t,” I laugh back.
His fingertips trail down my back and my body responds in the same way it has since the first time he touched me. “Are you sure you didn’t want me from the first time you saw me?”
I rise to my elbows, my fingers going to his hair and threading through it. “After what we just did, I want to say yes, but that would be a lie.”
“Way to hurt a guy’s ego,” he responds with color in his voice.
Twisting my lips, I stare down into his blue eyes. “I doubt that ego of yours has ever even been scratched.”
Nick slaps my bare bottom and rolls me onto my back, spreading my legs wide as he hovers between them. “Shut up and let me taste you.”
And for once, I have no problem doing just as he says.