Chapter 12
He must think she was a cock tease.
And maybe she was. But she didn’t mean to be.
James stood before her, trying his hardest not to look disappointed but failing miserably. And damn it, she was disappointed too. One look at him standing there shirtless, his jeans unzipped and a pained look on his face, would make any woman have second thoughts.
Hell, she was on third or maybe even fourth thoughts, but all of them brought her back to the fact that having sex with James was a bad idea. He was a parent of one of her students.
Rubbing the back of his neck with the hand holding the condom, James looked to the floor and huffed out a laugh. “You’re probably right.” His voice was low and gravelly and fell flat in her ears.
God, she wished she wasn’t right. What she wouldn’t give to run her nails over his muscled chest. To let them explore down along his ridged abdomen to feel what he had hidden underneath his boxer briefs.
She wanted to stomp her foot in frustration. She wanted to scream fuck you at doing the right thing. But everything that was ingrained in her was holding her back. Every time she’d been taught what was right, every time she’d been shown what was proper, that’s what she’d done.
Perfect little Megan McKenna. Never created any waves because she didn’t have a boat big enough to handle them.
“Listen,” James said, “I hope you don’t think I took advantage of you. I know that shouldn’t have happened.”
“No,” she replied immediately, walking toward him. “No, that’s not it. You didn’t take advantage of me at all.”
She stopped a few feet in front of him. She needed him to know that she’d been a willing participant, and he had nothing to feel guilty about.
“Yeah, we shouldn’t have let things get as far as we did, but I…” She stopped, not knowing what to say.
She needed to tell him that she had wanted it just as much as he had. That she had never felt so alive or wanted. That she would cherish what he’d given to her, regardless of whether it was right or wrong. “I don’t think we should feel guilty about what happened. I just think we should call it quits and not go any further.”
James took a deep breath, letting his hand fall to his side. “You’re right. You’re my son’s teacher. I don’t want to put you in a position where you feel conflicted between what you do at your job and what we might have going on outside of work.”
She nodded, relieved he understood.
“Fuck, I’m glad you were the reasonable person here,” he said with a small laugh. “I don’t think I could have stopped things.”
Her nerves tingled at knowing he wanted her so much. It was an empowering sort of feeling, to affect someone so much that they lost all sense of rational thinking. And just knowing him for the short amount of time that she had, for James to lose all rational thought probably said quite a lot.
“Besides,” he began, “you shouldn’t be fucked on top of a tool chest.”
Megan blushed at his language. She wasn’t sure she’d ever been fucked before. Not in the clawing, frenzied way that she’d wanted from James.
“We should stop now before we reach the point of no return,” he said, more to himself than to her. “Just because there’s attraction between us doesn’t mean we should act on it.”
“I agree.”
“Right.”
She blinked, disgusted by the bitter taste that had started to seep into her mouth. He was saying all the right things, but hearing them still stung. And from the sizeable erection she could still see beneath his open fly, his body wasn’t buying it either.
He shook his head. “Just because you’re one of the sexiest women I’ve ever fucking seen,” he said, almost spitting out the words as if he were arguing with himself, “doesn’t mean I should paw at you like a wild animal.”
She pulled in a shaky breath as his dark eyes met hers. “And the fact that we had a nice time together tonight shouldn’t necessarily lead to sex,” he finished.
The bitter taste in her mouth turned ashen, and she scraped her tongue against her teeth to get rid of it.
Shouldn’t, shouldn’t, shouldn’t.
All her life she’d been doing things that she should do. Things people expected her to do.
She’d never talked back as a child or gone through a rebellious teenage phase. She’d gotten good grades, always won the lead in her school plays, and never missed a curfew.
She’d gone to mass every week because she knew it made her mother happy. She’d gotten accepted into Northwestern and studied early childhood education because that’s what her parents had suggested.
She’d married a successful man, moved into a gigantic mansion with more rooms than she could ever use, and lived a picture-perfect life on the shores of Lake Michigan. She’d taken a job at a stuck-up institution that was more interested in the net worth of their students’ families than the education of the students themselves. She’d made friends and gone to luncheons with the wives of Chicago’s elite and sat quietly while the conversation turned to stupid shit like whose lawn was greener or whose pool boy was fucking which neighbor.
She’d done all of those things because they were what she should have done. She’d lived by the rules her entire life and look where it had gotten her.
Divorced. Childless. Broke. Broken.
Megan noticed James studying her. He looked concerned, like she might have been making faces as her entire, fucked-up, perfect life flashed through her mind.
Here was a man who was successful in his own right. Who had a wonderful child who loved him and whom he loved back. Who was absolutely gorgeous, seemed kind and compassionate. Who actually listened to what she said without holding up a finger to tell her to wait so he could take a phone call every five minutes. Who had shown her more fun in one night than she’d experienced during her entire marriage. Not to mention, he could do things with his fingers that she hadn’t known were even possible.
James Foley was what she shouldn’t want. But she really, really did.
“Megan?” he asked, his voice—low and uncertain—brushed against her skin like silk.
Her eyes went to his. “I’m tired of doing the things I should do.”
He frowned, obviously confused.
“It’s time I do what I want to do for once in my life.”
His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t make a move. “And what do you want to do?”
“You.”
The words were barely out of her mouth when she took the two steps between them. She wrapped her arms around his neck and melded her lips to his.
The tension drained from his shoulders as he immediately surrounded her with his strong arms. Fisting one hand in her hair at the back of her head, he cupped her ass with the other. His teeth sunk into her lower lip, causing her to yelp.
The bite of pain vanished, followed by a sweltering pleasure that started to pulse through her entire body. She felt as if she were burning, like a flame had ignited in her lower abdomen and was climbing quickly through her body. She panted into his mouth, not bothering to stop the little whimpers as he sucked on her tongue.
There was so much stimulation her senses were failing. All she could do was feel. Feel his hard body as she arched into him. Feel his strong, callused hands as they squeezed and rubbed against her. Feel his hot, wet mouth as it stole the breath from her body.
A mounting pressure started in between her thighs, and Megan wanted to feel him there as well.
Needed it.
She moved her hands to his open fly. Pulling at the elastic of his boxer briefs, she snuck one hand in and encircled his cock in her palm. The fist in her hair tightened as he sucked in a pained breath.
He was thick and hot under her touch. After freeing his erection, she ran her hand along his length, marveling at the way his silken skin moved over his rigid shaft.
“Fuck, your hand feels good,” he gritted through clenched teeth.
Megan loved the way he talked to her. Loved that he didn’t watch what he said or how he said it.
Licking her bottom lip involuntarily, she ran her thumb through the moisture beading at the tip of his cock. Everything about his body was amazing. And just seeing how much he wanted her and imagining what he’d feel like inside her was enough to cause the pressure building at her core to pulse like a bass drum.
For the second time that night, James tugged her skirt to her waist. The cool air inside the garage kissed her bare thighs. Unhooking her garters and burrowing her thumbs under her satin panties, she pushed them down, letting them fall to her ankles. She managed to step out of them with only one foot before he grabbed her waist and turned her.
The spin, coupled with his closeness, made Megan lose her balance. She fell forward at the waist, her hands planted on the hood of a sleek, expensive-looking sports car. Thank goodness she didn’t have a wedding ring on to scratch the paint.
In her reflection, she watched the corners of her mouth curl up as she welcomed the reality of that thought.
“Fuck, babe. I don’t even have the words to tell you how turned on I am right now.” His voice sounded strained, as if he was trying hard to compose himself. She felt one of his hands skim over the curve of her ass. “You…in only a black garter belt? Bare, wet, and ready?”
His fingers moved down her backside and slid between her legs. His hands were callused and rough, and as his fingers played with the throbbing folds of her sex, she thanked her lucky stars for the added friction. Those coarse fingers felt a million times better than Niall’s lily-white manicured hands.
She hated to think about her ex at that moment, but so far, James had surpassed him at least a half dozen times in every single way possible.
“You have the finest ass,” James continued, his low voice causing her to sway on her heels, “and the longest fucking legs I’ve ever seen. And this…” He quieted momentarily as he plunged two long fingers inside her. “This is what I want.”
She arched her back, loving how his fingers moved inside her. Dropping her head forward, she watched her blond hair fall against the smooth, dark surface of the car. Her hands were stretched, her fingers stiffening and straining against the hood.
“James, please,” she whimpered. “I want you.”
She thought he might have chuckled, but she couldn’t be sure. She wasn’t sure of anything at that moment other than she needed him like she needed her next breath.
His fingers left her, and she ached from the emptiness. The sound of the condom wrapper appeased her, and seconds later, she felt him at the entrance of her body.
Yes. Oh, God, yes.
She rocked back into him and tilted her hips higher, silently pleading. His grip on her waist tightened. Slowly, he pushed inside. Inch by inch, he stretched her. And every time he paused and she thought she’d die from the pure, exquisite pleasure, he pushed in a little farther.
She’d never been taken from behind before. And when she finally felt her ass rest snuggly against his thighs, her eyes rolled back in her head. He was so deep. He was everywhere inside her. Closing her eyes, she didn’t know if she wanted to move away from the extreme fullness or press closer to take him deeper.
“Jesus, Megan,” he breathed as she felt him tremble behind her.
When she opened her eyes and saw her reflection in the car’s hood, she almost didn’t recognize herself. Her mouth was parted as she breathed heavily, and her eyes were hooded.
She was being fucked from behind against the hood of a car…something she never could have imagined.
Megan rocked her hips against James in an invitation to move. And he did.
Slowly at first, he pulled his hips away before pushing back in. Every delicious ridge of him slid deeper as he pumped from behind her.
Closing her eyes, she tried to capture the moment. The sound of her breath as it rushed in and out. The harshness of his curses as his tempo increased. The high-pitched squeaks her sweaty fingers made as they slipped on the hood of the car. The sharp slap of skin against skin as he began to thrust harder.
His grip on her hips was bruising, but she didn’t care. The pressure in her core was twisting and turning, the tension stretching so tight that she began to pant aloud. The fire inside her grew bolder, licking at her insides like an inferno.
With every thrust, it raced higher. It inched up her spine, within her abdomen, down her legs and her arms. Her whole body felt ablaze with the most incredible heat.
“Megan,” he panted behind her. “Are you with me?”
She knew what he was asking, but she couldn’t speak. She dared not break the feeling that was bubbling up inside of her. She never wanted it to end. She wanted to feel it forever.
But when she felt his hands tightening on her hips, she couldn’t hold back the fire any longer. Throwing her head back, she yelled as the inferno exploded inside of her. White heat pulsed through her body, behind her eyelids. She felt James thrust once more before stilling.
She could feel her heartbeat in the tips of her fingers, in the balls of her feet. Gliding through the air, she slowly returned to earth like a feather.
Her upper body weighed a million pounds, and her legs weren’t strong enough to withstand her weight. Just when she thought she might collapse, James withdrew and pulled her to a standing position, allowing her to rest against his heaving chest.
He felt solid behind her. His hands rested loosely at her waist, and his quick breaths warmed the skin of her neck.
“James?”
“Right here,” he replied.
“I’m with you,” she whispered so quietly she could barely hear her own voice.