26. Hailey

TWENTY-SIX

The second I set it free, he had one arm wound around my waist and the other gripped onto the back of my neck as he pulled me flush against him.

Gold-flecked eyes danced in the muted light, a second of searching before he murmured, "I don't want to fucking pretend that I don't want you, Hailey. Don't want to pretend like there isn't something more to this."

There was no hesitation after that. His mouth crushed against mine, urgent and as desperate as I felt.

This kiss? It was fevered.

He spun me and spun me, never breaking that kiss as we fumbled our way across the living room and kitchen toward my bedroom, hands gripping and mouths searching and hearts thrumming.

We banged through the opening, and the second we made it inside my room, he pressed me to the wall next to the door.

I gasped against his lips.

A hand weaved into my hair that earlier I'd let free of its braid, and he tugged my head back as he pulled back for a beat.

Hunger blazed in his eyes.

It left no question I was about to be devoured.

I wanted it. I wanted to be consumed. Consumed in a way I'd never been before. In a way I knew only this man could do.

"Fuck me, Shortcake. What have you done?" Cody grated it as he reached out and quietly shut the door with a soft snick.

Glancing at me, he flipped the lock. The tiny metallic sound bounced through the room like a promise.

A covenant.

Inciting.

Provoking.

Instigating a disruption that couldn't be contained.

He dove back for me, and his tongue stroked into my mouth to lick against mine.

It was a tangle of greed.

A snaring of lust.

Desire sparked with each crucial lash, a life-beat that spread through my body and pumped through my blood.

I drove my fingers into his soft, damp hair, and I hung on as he kissed me into oblivion.

As reality fell away and the only thing that mattered was this moment.

"Cody."

"I've got you, darlin'," he rumbled into the manic kiss, my feet barely touching the ground because I was already floating away.

I wanted to feel him everywhere, and I searched him in the shadows of my room, palms riding over his shoulders, fingertips exploring his chest, his stomach, his hips. I dragged them back up his thick throat so I could explore the lines of his rugged, handsome face.

Tracing.

Touching.

Memorizing.

The way I'd wanted to do from the first time I'd seen him. The way I'd felt the impact of his presence like a thunderclap.

Like an awakening.

I should have known something so powerful could only mean death.

Cody groaned, and his hands slid down my sides, taking greedy handfuls as he went. "Love these fuckin' curves. Got me fucked, Hailey."

He spread them out over my bottom and pulled me hard against his rigid length.

Need left me on a pant, and I clung to him tighter.

"You feel that?" The possessive sound was close to a growl. "What you do to me? Do you get how fucking hard I am for you? How badly I want you? I don't think there's been a time in my life when I've wanted anything as badly as this. You're the kind of temptation that makes a man do stupid things. Kind of temptation that drives him right up to the edge."

A whimper crawled up my throat as a flicker of pleasure sparked where we connected because he had me there, too.

On the edge.

Doing stupid, stupid things.

Cody grabbed me by the backs of the thighs, and he hiked me up like I weighed nothing.

My arms shot out to curl around his neck and my legs wrapped around his narrow waist.

There wasn't anything I could do to stop myself from rubbing up and down the perfect shape of his chest and abdomen.

"Look at the way you fit in my arms, Hailey. Like you were meant to be there. Making me lose sight."

I couldn't find it in myself to care that I was making these embarrassing sounds, my need for him verging on manic. "It's you who's made me lose reason. You who's making me need things I don't understand."

I kept kissing him without sense, and he stroked his tongue against mine as he carried me across my bedroom.

A gluttonous sound got free when he tossed me to my bed, and I bounced on the mattress, pressing my thighs together since I no longer had the stony planes of his abdomen to grind myself against.

From where he stood at the side of my bed, he smirked down at me. No doubt, he was reveling in the fact he had me spun up so fast that I was close to begging.

"Don't worry, Shortcake. I understand exactly what you need."

"Cocky Cowboy." I wheezed it as my hips arched from the bed.

A rough chuckle skated the heated air, and those big hands came to take me by both knees.

Heat flash-fired, and Cody let that grin that was close to pain right then tweak higher as he slowly pried them apart, the expression on his face ravenous.

Eyes molten, burning me up.

"Have you been thinking about me, Hailey? The way I've been thinking about you?"

"Yes." I saw no point in denying it any longer, even though I was sure it was going to crush me in the end.

"And what exactly have you been thinking?" His voice was a tease edged in possession.

God, I'd never met a man like him. One so easily arrogant who still oozed this power that made me weak in the knees.

One who made me both want to run because I was terrified of what he might come to mean all while knowing I would sell half my soul to stay in his space.

"I haven't stopped thinking of you having me like this since you touched me last weekend."

What I wouldn't admit is I'd thought it for years.

Since that summer.

Fantasies of him that I'd kept like a dirty secret that had only piled on the shame.

"I don't want to go to sleep tonight without you touching me. One more time. Show me what it would be like. If it was real."

Each word was a ragged pant, and he kept taking me in from where he stood hovering at the edge of my bed.

So big in the night. A tower that shrouded.

"One more time, huh?" He prodded it, like he already knew no matter how many times I had him, I was going to want more.

"Yes. Once more." It was the last defense I had. Because I was the foolish girl who already felt herself falling.

Falling for a man who was so out of reach I knew I could never really touch him.

"Don't you fret, darlin', I plan on taking care of you. I'm going to make you come so hard and so good that I'm going to have to gag you so Lolly doesn't hear you screaming."

There was that arrogance, but I couldn't find it in me to be offended by it right then. Not when what he was suggesting sounded so damn nice.

"Please."

Cody ran his hands up the inside of my thighs, spreading my legs wide as he went.

Flames ignited in their wake.

Shivers rolled.

Alive.

My heart a thunder in my chest.

His silhouette was massive where he hovered over me in the swirling dimness of my room.

Both hazard and asylum.

I whimpered a needy sound when he leaned all the way over me and ran his lips along my jaw, his short beard rough and sweet and probably leaving a mark.

Lolly was going to have a field day tomorrow.

But I couldn't find it in myself to care. Not when those hands raked down my shoulders and over my breasts before he sat back enough so he could grab the hem of my tank. He slowly peeled it up.

I shivered as he went, and I angled up to make it easier for him.

My nipples pebbled into the hardest peaks when he pulled it all the way over my head.

I sank back to the mattress while Cody remained standing. Gaze afire and his teeth plucking at his bottom lip.

"Fuck me, darlin'."

He dragged the knuckle of his index finger over my left nipple. Fire zipped through my middle and sent shockwaves shooting between my thighs.

"Been dying to get a good look at these tits. Not sure I'm ever going to be the same."

He bunched both of them up, my breasts far more than those big hands could contain, and he dipped down and licked one hardened tip and then moved to do the same to the other.

I squirmed, bucking up as my fingers clawed at his chest. "Cody."

"Don't worry, darlin', I know what you need," he mumbled at the sensitive flesh, and then he was easing down, kissing a path across the soft flesh of my belly.

Desire streaked far and wide, and I breathed out toward the ceiling when he hooked his fingers in the waistband of my sleep shorts and dragged them down my legs.

Leaving me shaking and bare.

He hissed.

I didn't know if I wanted to be shy or bold. If I should press my knees together to cover myself or spread them wide so he'd touch me again, the way he had the other night when he'd sent me flying.

He made the decision easy, taking me back by the knees and rubbing circles on the inside with the pads of his thumbs as he took me in like I was a picture to be admired.

His tongue stroked across his lips. "Look at that pink, perfect pussy, dripping for me."

I whined, mad with lust.

Delirious with what he'd awakened. This part of me that'd gone dormant years before.

"Do you have any idea the number of times I pictured you like this?" he rumbled from somewhere deep in his chest. "Lying right here in this bed? Naked and glorious. Just the way I knew you'd be."

"You think I'm the beautiful one?" I rasped it. Because he left me dumbfounded, his rugged, raw beauty stealing my breath.

Cody shifted his attention to my eyes. There wasn't a trace of the tease he normally wore. "Yeah, Hailey, I do."

Then he slipped his arms under my legs, and he dipped between them and dragged his tongue through my center, all the way up to suckle my clit.

He nearly sent me soaring with the first lick.

My fingers dove into his hair as my shoulders arched from the bed.

I mewled a desperate, "Cody."

He eased back, so freaking smug as he lifted his head to look at me where I writhed. "Didn't even take a minute to have you whimpering my name. Give me a second, and you'll be screaming it."

"I didn't invite you in here to taunt me, Mr. Cooper."

He cracked a grin. "Ah, we're back to Mr. Cooper, are we? Seems awful formal considering your pussy is in my face."

"Shut up." It was a choked laugh, and I was unable to contain the smile because the man was so much, pure joy and light and warmth, then I was moaning when he murmured, "Gladly," and dove back in again.

He tucked his shoulders between my thighs, his tongue hot and perfect as he rolled it over my clit.

Pleasure sparked behind my eyes, and in two seconds flat, my entire body was vibrating. A feeling sweeping through, pinpricks that promised what was to come.

I mewled and whined and tried to keep quiet, but I was whimpering his name like the lyrics of a song.

Cody quickened, swirling, lapping, teasing and taunting, his voice a grumble against that sensitive nub. "Yes, Shortcake. That's it. Let me hear you. Want to hear you come undone as I eat your delicious cunt. Have wanted you on my tongue since the second I saw you."

Bliss gathered quick, from the outermost edges of my body and mind. I writhed and jutted, begging for more, and my fingers yanked at the soft curls of his hair.

Cody pressed two of those big fingers into the well of my body, or maybe it was three, because it felt so good, the way he filled me.

So much.

Not nearly enough.

The incredible pressure as he pumped, driving me right toward ecstasy.

His fingers thrust deep as he intensified the sweep of his tongue.

And it grew and grew—this light that illuminated inside me. This man who was so kind and giving once you peeled back the layers.

His arrogance sweet.

His goodness great.

And what expanded in my chest became overwhelming.

Joy.

Warmth.

The unfurling of something brand new.

A rebirth.

I should be terrified of it. The way it swelled and inflated and billowed through my spirit while the magic he whipped me into gathered to a pinpoint.

My belly tight, each brush of his tongue driving me to a place where I'd likely want to exist forever.

It was reckless, going there, but I was already climbing toward that destination.

He pushed his fingers deep, turning them as he used his other hand to press down on the lower part of my belly. He raked his fingers somewhere deep as his tongue swirled and licked.

I splintered then.

A shattering of pleasure as I blew.

I came apart like rays of sunlight spearing into the sky the second the sun breaks the horizon.

Gold, glittering streaks. Fireworks of pinks and blues.

I throbbed around his fingers as bliss streaked through my body.

Rolling and rolling and rolling.

He slowed though he didn't stop, the man dragging the orgasm out because he knew exactly how to take care of me, just like he'd promised.

I chanted his name, no sense to be found, only the bright light that sparked behind my eyes and the sensation that swept me away.

Rapture.

Release.

A bittersweet sort of heaven that I knew would soon be ripped from under my feet.

We both had to know this wouldn't last.

Before I could make sense of it, he crawled onto the bed and planted both hands on either side of my head.

He hovered over me as he angled down and took my mouth in a mind-bending kiss.

It was rough and demanding and in an instant had me spun up again.

He swallowed the needy sounds that continued to crawl up my throat as I continued to vibrate beneath him.

Ripples of pleasure that tingled and danced.

He kept me there until the aftershocks wore off, then he started to peck little kisses to my mouth.

"I told you I was going to have to gag you." He left the tease all over my lips. I could feel his smile woven underneath.

And my chest expanded again, and I knew it was affection sprouting and looking for a place to take root.

It would be a mistake, falling for him.

But God, how was I supposed to stop myself when he eased back a fraction to gaze down at me, his hand soft where he set it on my cheek?

Tender as he whispered, "So fucking gorgeous, Hailey. I don't think you know. I don't think you have the first clue what you're doing to me. The way you're making me feel. The way I think you always have."

A hint of uncertainty pulled to his strong brow, like he was trying to place where this feeling had come from.

I ignored the guilt that pressed at my ribs and brushed my fingertips down the scruff on the side of his face. "I think it's you who's ruining me."

He smiled in that playful way. "Oh, darlin'…you're all wrong. You are something I never expected."

He took my hand and kissed across my knuckles.

My heart ached.

There was no question I was letting this go too far. This emotion that wound me in a fist and prodded me toward the type of pain I couldn't take.

But I couldn't let him go, either.

Not yet.

Not when he was looking at me like that.

I urged him up to sitting then climbed to my knees, totally bare and not even caring. I eased up between his legs that he had bent with his feet planted on the mattress.

Cody grinned as I reached for the hem of his shirt. "Just what do you think you're doing?"

His voice was all mischief and seduction.

"I figured since I am naked, this is only fair."

Except it wasn't fair at all. Not when I peeled his shirt up and over his head and the man was sitting there with his chest bare, all those colors and designs dancing over the bristling muscle that ticked and flexed underneath.

The man so powerful.

Want trembled my thighs.

But he was more than this gorgeous exterior.

More than I'd imagined.

I'd thought him shallow.

A jerk.

So careless in his actions that he didn't care who he hurt as he barged through his days seeking pleasure.

But I knew he was more than that. I could see it in his eyes and feel it whispering through his spirit.

I think I'd known it then, too, but I'd been so riddled with guilt that I couldn't see through the pain.

I reached out and ran my fingertips over the clock that rested over his heart.

The disfigured hands set in a mournful cry that I couldn't quite hear.

"Why does this sing of sorrow?"

If I wasn't paying such close attention, I might not have noticed the way he flinched. The misery the connection caused.

I'd thought he'd retreat from it.

Deny it.

Only instead of pushing me away, he gathered my hand and pressed my palm flat over the tattoo.

His eyes swam in affliction.

"It's not sorrow, Hailey. It's choosing a path, wrong or right, and following it because you know it's the only thing you can do. It's making a choice for someone else. Giving them peace or joy or maybe time, even when it might mean the loss of yours."

My spirit tugged in anguish for him, at the loneliness that was suddenly staring back.

I wanted to ask him what he'd meant, but he kept gliding my palm downward, over the rippling muscles of his abdomen.

My breath went shallow as I glanced down at where he was heading—toward his cock that was outlined by his sweats, pressed up high, so fat and thick.

Only the thin fabric separated us when he set my hand over his hard, steely length. Flames licked up my arm, and he moaned a seductive sound as I fisted my hand around him.

Greed banged against the walls, rebounding and reverberating, sending the heat soaring again, though his voice curled with that easiness. "Careful, darlin', or you're going to make me embarrass myself."

"I don't think there's a thing you have to be embarrassed about." I pumped his massive cock over his sweats.

Lust radiated from his flesh, and he fiddled with a lock of my hair as he looked across at me with eyes that no longer were just molten but flamed.

"How's it possible you are right here in front of me?" The words were ragged rasps. "Meant it when I said it should be impossible for someone like you to exist. There shouldn't be a treasure so great. A beauty so abstract. You had me the second I stumbled on you in that trailer, Hailey. The way my guts curled with lust at the sight of you. I haven't been able to get you out of my mind since."

That's what this was, wasn't it?

Lust?

Except there was something bigger suspended in the air. Something that beat profound and whipped around us, a gravity that I knew better than to slip into.

Only I was getting drawn there, careening his direction.

I angled up high on my knees, letting my chest brush against his as I continued to stroke him.

"I've wanted you since that summer. You're the first man who ever made me desire."

I should keep my mouth shut.

Tie the admissions where they bubbled on my tongue.

But I didn't know how to stop the confession from bleeding free.

He winced again, and a grimness clouded his expression. "When I was with her."

He didn't form it a question. He already knew. And my heart was twisting, and I knew I was in the wrong, that this was a betrayal, and it was going to hurt.

Because everything I felt went so much deeper than this could ever be, knitting up in mayhem, and I should have been smart enough to know how it was going to end.

I was setting myself up to get shredded.

My stupid heart smashed.

But in that moment, I didn't care.

I wanted it.

I wanted it all.

I wanted to be selfish and take and take.

I wanted to feel something brighter than I'd felt in years.

In so long.

In ever.

Since the moment I'd run, gutted by grief, and instead had collided with something so much worse than I ever could have anticipated.

So, I reached down and shoved his sweats down his hips. He lifted to wind out of them, and I pushed them all the way down so he could kick them off his ankles.

A wave of dizziness slammed me when I freed his dick.

Massive and jutting, the head engorged and throbbing with need.

I ran my thumb over the dripping tip before I stroked him once again as I moved to straddle him, my palm gliding down his smooth flesh.

Surprise rasped up his throat, and his hands shot to my waist.

"Shortcake." His voice shook with the warning.

Dark and low.

A warning that echoed against the walls.

Mine matched it when I leaned in and whispered an inch from his lips, "Please, don't question it. Just fuck me."