19. Zoe

19

ZOE

Leave. Go. Home. We'd finished reviewing the tapes, and I'd even looked at some of the auditions for Walter's character. I'd more than overstayed my welcome, yet I was lingering in the hall. We were standing beside the door. My brain was telling my feet to move, but they were remaining in place.

Miles was only a foot away from me. He'd asked me to have dinner with him, and I'd turned him down. The last thing I needed was for the entire town to be gossiping about us eating at the Opera House together. Or for a delivery person to see us when he dropped off food here at the office.

I just needed to go home. It was that simple. So why couldn't I open the door and walk through it?

"Thank you again for asking me to watch the auditions. I really liked Rachel, but they were all good," I repeated myself for the third time as I clung to my purse strap.

"Of course. I'm glad you said yes. I was really happy to see you."

"You were?"

"I'm always happy to see you."

I licked my lips nervously, and unless it was my imagination, his gaze dropped down to my mouth. My brain was working overtime, as it ran his words through the What-Does-That Mean-Woman-Filter. I'm always happy to see you.

Maybe he was a people person, so he was always happy to see anyone. Or maybe he thought I was nice, and he liked being around nice people. If he weren't Miles Happy Trails Hottie Ford I would swear that he wanted to kiss me, but there was no way he would.

All night I'd kept feeling him looking at me. And I would have sworn that there was a ‘vibe,' as the kids say, between us. When he opened the door earlier, he said I looked beautiful; he even said I looked hot in scrubs. No one looked hot in scrubs.

And then there were the two moments at the house. One when he wiped the green bean off my lip and the other when he got the dryer sheet off my butt. Both times I'd thought he was leaning down for a kiss before AJ interrupted us.

If he wasn't, well, him , I'd think that what I had been feeling for him might be reciprocated, but he'd dated Victoria's Secret models, a few pop stars, and multiple actresses who were on Maxim's Sexiest Woman Alive lists.

There was no way he could be interested in me.

Could he?

"Okay, well, bye." I pivoted to leave, but as I turned, something happened. Something I couldn't explain. I lifted up on my toes and pressed my lips to his.

I truly don't know why I did it or what possessed me to be so bold. It was like I was a different person. I was having an out-of-body experience and watching what I was doing from above.

Miles froze. He stood perfectly still. He did not move a muscle.

As the realization of what I'd done shocked my system like the Ice Bucket Challenge, drenching me in mortification, I lowered down onto my heels and started to back away from him toward the door. "I am so sorr?—"

My apology was cut off when he took a step forward, cupped my face with his hands, lowered his head, and sealed his lips to mine in a claiming kiss. His mouth pressed against my lips with equal parts tenderness and force that instantly showed he had a mastery of seduction. His tongue dragged across mine as he explored the recesses of my mouth.

A whimper escaped my throat as I gripped his shoulders, anchoring myself to him. A delicious shiver of anticipation rushed through me as he backed me up against the wall. His kiss was urgent and exploratory. My entire body quivered as I surrendered to him with reckless abandon.

When he broke our kiss and his lips began to move down my neck, a little voice in the back of my head asked, What are you doing? It said, This is a bad idea . Thankfully, my hormones duct-taped that voice's mouth and shoved it into a closet in the back of my head.

Miles' hands moved up and down my back as his lips traveled across my collarbone. The material of my shirt pulled from the waistband of my skirt, and his fingers slid beneath it against my skin on my lower back. The heat and pressure of his hands on my bare skin sent a thrill bursting between my legs.

I wanted more—more feeling, more getting lost in the moment. He brought out a side of me that I didn't recognize. It was a side that didn't think about the past or the future; all she wanted to do was be in this moment.

Being here with Miles made anything feel possible. It was like an escape. For tonight, I wanted to forget the rest of the world existed and just feel. I wanted to live my fantasy.

Lowering my arms from his shoulders, I pulled my shirt up and off my head. He stared down at me, his eyes taking me in.

"Fuck, you are so sexy."

I was glad I'd decided to shave and wear my sexiest matching underwear and bra set. Nadia gave it to me on my last birthday. It was white lace with a tiny black ribbon on the edges.

My eyes closed, and I concentrated on the sensation of Miles' touch as he trailed his fingers down the side of my torso and kissed my neck softly and tenderly. He continued pressing his lips across my collarbone moving lower over my chest until he reached down the edges of my bra. Then he began to place open-mouth kisses over the thin material covering my breast.

I lifted my hands and ran my fingers through his thick hair as he sucked my pebbled bud through the white lace—the friction of the material rubbing against my nipple added to the pleasure. I watched as he moved to my right breast and repeated the motion. Licking my areola, wetting the entire area before sucking it into his mouth and flicking it with his tongue.

My nails scraped against his scalp as his leg moved between my knees, spreading them apart. I felt the rough fabric of his jeans nestle against my sex as I straddled his thick thigh. As he bit down on my nipple between his teeth, my hips jerked forward of their own accord, and the motion caused friction between the lace of my panties and the denim covering his leg. One of his hands moved to my backside, which he squeezed, encouraging my hips to roll, while the other teased the breast that wasn't in his mouth.

Pleasure began to build low in my belly as I ground my sex against his muscular, jean-covered thigh. One hand kneaded my ass cheek while the other massaged my breast, and his mouth nipped and sucked my puckered flesh. The sensations all combined to overwhelm me, and soon I was going up and over the edge.

"Yes, yes, yes," I cried out as I fisted my hands in his hair and rode out my release on his leg. Tremors radiated from my core as tingles lashed through me.

Once the orgasm subsided, my limbs went limp, and my head fell back against the wall. I hadn't dry-humped since I was a teenager, and I'd never actually come from doing it. I suddenly felt embarrassed that I had.

"I can't believe that just happened," I mumbled against Miles' neck as I snaked my arms around him.

He ran his hands up and down my back. "Did that feel good?"

His voice was deep, and it vibrated against my chest.

"Yes." I nodded my head.

"Good." He unsnapped my bra and then moved his kisses lower down over my belly as he kneeled in front of me. "But I bet I can make you feel even better."

"Um, I'm not sure…" I'd never had multiple orgasms before.

His eyes lifted up to mine, and there was a spark of determination. "You don't think I can?"

"I've never been able to come more than once."

The corner of his mouth curled up in a bad-boy half grin. "Good. I like a challenge."

His hands both shifted to my lower back, and he pulled the zipper to my skirt down. I felt myself getting a little shy as the material fell to the floor. I wasn't a supermodel, or on a special diet, or an actress who had a trainer. I didn't even work out that often. I had stretch marks from having AJ. I ate carbs and worked long hours in a hospital where there were a lot of vending machines with candy bars and chips in them. It's not that I had low self-esteem, but I also knew that I had curves.

I shifted on my feet, feeling very self-conscious.

Miles stilled, his eyes lifting up to mine. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I shook my head.

His eyes were boring into mine, and I knew that he wasn't going to let this go.

"If you want to stop?—"

"It's not that it's just….I'm not… I don't have time to exercise because I work so much, and I've had a baby and?—"

"You don't think you're sexy?" He cut me off.

"It's not that. I'm fine for normal women, but the women you've been with?—"

He stood abruptly, cutting off my words. My eyes widened as he grabbed my hand, pressing it to his pants. When he did, my fingers curled around a very hard, very large erection. I felt my cheeks heat.

He lowered his head so his forehead rested against mine. With the hand not pressing mine to his hard-on, he cupped my face. He spoke in a pained, raspy voice, "I've been like this for weeks. Ever since you opened the door in your Atlanta Braves shirt and sweats. All you have to do is breathe, and I get hard. Whenever I'm near you, I have to actively think of anything other than how sweet you smell, how sexy you look, how bad I want to kiss you, and to taste you, so I don't embarrass myself. It has been killing me. You have been killing me. You are the sexiest, most beautiful woman I have ever seen."

With every word he spoke, his shaft was pulsing heavily against my palm. Each word he spoke sent hot flashes of need spiking in me.

His breath fanned my face as his thumb grazed my cheek. "Do you believe me?"

Even though somewhere in the back of my head, I knew he was an actor, and this could all be fake; it felt real to me. I trusted him. I couldn't explain why, but I did.

"Yes."

He dropped back to his knees and tugged my underwear down my legs roughly. I stepped out of them, and he lifted my right leg and placed it over his shoulder. He turned his head and pressed several kisses to my inner thigh. Hearing everything he'd just said, feeling how hard he was, seeing his face so close to my sex, feeling the stubble of his cheek barely graze my feminine folds, had me so close to going over the edge once more.

When he turned, I watched as he used his fingers to spread me apart. I watched as he ran his tongue from the base of my opening to the hood of my sex. When he reached my sensitive clit, my hips jerked, and he carefully licked around it several times before flicking over it, electrifying every nerve ending in my body. My release slammed into me as my body convulsed. Miles continued licking my clit until the very last echoes of pleasure had vibrated through me.

My knees buckled beneath me, and I was vaguely aware of trying to hold myself up. Miles stood, pinning me between himself and the wall. I gripped his shoulders as I floated down from the cloud of bliss.

"You still have all your clothes on," I whispered as I buried my face in the crook of his neck.

"Not for long," he gritted out.

If he could do this to me while he was fully dressed, I was scared to think what he could do to me when he was naked—scared, but excited to find out.