Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Faina

I start to make a break for it, but his arm bands around my waist before I can get far, and then he’s swooping me up and off my feet, twirling me through the air, and then slamming my ass down on the counter.

Immediately he’s on me, his body between my legs, and then he’s pushing me back, forcing me flat, his palm dragging down the center of my chest, between my breasts, until he reaches the top of my leggings. His green eyes are dark and fierce, predatory as they rake me in, noting my heavy breathing.

In an instant, he’s ripping my leggings off, forcing a shocked cry from my lungs. One by one, he places each foot up on the counter and then spreads my knees apart, bearing me to him. He stares down at my thong, the thin scrap of pink satin that I’m positive is revealing a wet mark, like it’s the most fascinating thing he’s ever seen.

“Take off your shirt.”

With trembling hands, I reach down and pull it up and over my head. The stone is cold against my back, and I arch away from it, but his hand is there, pressing me back down and making me shiver once more. His finger grazes across the trussed-up swell of each breast over my bra as he tracks every line and curve I’m composed of.

“This is how I want you to eat dinner tonight. Only wearing this. But I want my cum leaking out of you as you do.”

Holy Christ. My eyes close, and my breath hitches. “Dex?—”

“You’re on the pill. I saw them in the bathroom.”

I nod my head, my teeth sinking desperately into my bottom lip, so I don’t combust right here.

“I was tested after I caught Elsie.”

“Brooks and I always used condoms.” I open my eyes, noting his curious expression. “I’ve never had sex without one,” I admit. Ever the cautious, good girl, I had a friend in college who got pregnant before she wanted to, and I didn’t want that to be me if I could avoid it.

“Faina, can I fuck you bare?”

I shouldn’t say yes. I know what it will do to me if I let Dex be the first person that I’ve ever done this with. But I can’t help but want it to be him either. I give him a jerky nod, and then he drags me up by the back of my neck and slams his lips down on mine. His tongue dives into my mouth, taking no prisoners as he immediately overpowers me.

My hands grasp his shoulders, my body off-balance with my feet up on the counter this way. He continues to kiss me, holding me by the back of the neck, his fingers up in my hair as his other hand comes down, sliding over my breasts until one finger swirls over my clit through my underwear.

I whimper into his mouth as he pushes the damp spot into me, gliding up and down, toying with me. He’s diabolically good at this. Every touch, every pass of his lips, every breath he gives me makes me more and more desperate for him. I ache, my pussy clenching, needing to feel him fill me up.

Needing to just feel… more.

He breaks the kiss, nipping at my bottom lip nearly to the point of pain. “Stay upright. I want you to watch me.” With that he trails down my body, placing wet, open-mouthed kisses as he does, all the while his fingers continue to tickle and play with my pussy.

One hand lands on the counter behind me, the other in his hair as he reaches the apex of my thighs, and then takes a deep inhale of me. Adrenaline slams through me, making my skin prickle and my blood thrum. He pulls my panties aside, baring me fully to him.

“Oh, princess. How I love your pretty cunt.” He takes another inhale, his nose rubbing my clit. He spreads my thighs wider, as wide as they can go, and then he uses the flat of his tongue to lick from my opening up to my clit. I whimper, gripping his hair tighter.

I never imagined I could ever feel beautiful and sexy being this open and exposed to a man, but Dex doesn’t just make me feel beautiful or sexy or even desired. He makes me feel alive. Like I’m finally discovering the woman I’ve hidden beneath layers of fear and ingrained self-consciousness.

Since I walked out on Brooks, I’ve been shedding those layers one by one, but listening to Dex groan and grunt and watching as he eats me like a man starving, hungry and voracious, I think I finally shed the last one.

His fingers dig into my thighs in a way that makes me think he’ll leave marks. I moan at the thought. At the notion of finding his fingerprints on my skin. A secret taboo only we’ll know about.

I ache so fiercely for him I can hardly stand it, and I tell him that. The words tearing from my lips as his teeth graze my sensitive clit. He’s rough. Rougher with me than he’s been these last few days. He’s testing me, I realize. Seeing how far he can go, but little does he know, I have no intention of stopping him.

This might be all new for me, but I already know I want it all.

He presses his thumb to my clit, his other thumb now holding my folds open and giving his tongue better access. I’m barely hanging on. Barely able to breathe. Fighting the urge to close my eyes. To stop watching. But I can’t. The way his eyes flicker up to mine and then back down to where he’s eating me is so overpowering it’s as if my mind is caught, held in his possession.

His tongue swirls and swirls around my opening while his thumb rubs and rubs at my clit. I can’t stop it. My orgasm slams through me, making me scream and rip at his hair. My thighs clamp against the sides of his head, the intensity too much, and yet I’m helplessly grinding against his mouth and thumb.

My grip slackens in his hair, and then he’s standing, tearing his jeans down, and parting my thighs once more. He lines his cock up, moving the head around, using my arousal as a lubricant.

“Eyes, Faina. Give me your eyes. I want you looking at me when you feel my cock inside you like this for the first time.” My head snaps up reflexively, and then without warning, he slams into me.

I cry out, my back arching and my arms holding up begin to shake. I can’t breathe. I can’t think. All I can do is feel .

“ Fuuuuck , that feels bloody fantastic.” He breathes out a harsh breath and then another as he holds himself still. “You feel that, love? You feel how deep that is? How fucking good? Christ, Faina, it’s this. Nothing has ever been this good. Not ever.”

I can only nod. It does feel different, and it’s never been this good, and with that, he’s ruined me. Not just because of the way it feels, but because of the way he feels.

His forehead falls to mine, our noses brushing as he starts to pump up into me. His eyes close, and his breath stutters. He pulls me upright, drawing me closer—any space between us is too much—and I hug him to me.

All the fire and madness from when he was going down on me is gone, replaced with slow thrusts and eye contact, punctuated by heavy breaths that mingle between our layered lips. I’ve never been close like this with someone while they’re inside of me. Never made such fierce, unflappable eye contact. His lips eat at mine, and I taste myself on him. The pleasure is undeniable, and I start to whimper, needing more of it.

He pulls back and shoves in, harder this time, shifting my hips so our angle is deeper. So I’m more open to him. It’s a tight fit—it always is—but somehow it’s tighter, wetter, more intense.

“I’m so hard right now,” he marvels, licking the seam of my lips. “You make me so hard, princess. I’ve never been so fucking hard in my life.”

I can feel every inch of him. The way he throbs against my tight walls. The way he shifts his hips so he can reach that perfect spot inside me with every push and pump. He’s still dressed, which makes this feel dirty and degrading, yet the way he’s surrounding me makes me feel worshipped and adored.

Words slip past his lips, words I can barely make out. Murmurs and sound—almost like music—feed into me, stirring me up until I don’t know where he ends and I begin. He makes me feel like I’m the only one in his universe, and it’s such a fucking high that I’m gasping and whimpering and biting at his lips and begging, pleading , for him to make me come.

“Soon,” he rasps, his face falling to my shoulder, his teeth sawing along my collarbone. “Soon. I want to feel your perfect cunt come on me, but not yet. It’s too good, Faina. I want it to last and last.”

I’m dragging in air as he quickens his pace, his hips slamming, his cock taking. Every thrust is deeper than the last. Every piston of his hips faster, marking me, claiming me. Skin against skin. Wet. Loud. Smacks.

“I can’t—” It’s all I manage before I start to come. And come. And fucking come because I swear my orgasm goes on and on—a vicious fire-breathing dragon that claws at my flesh and tears the muscle from my bones. I’m grinding and pushing and aching and begging, and I can’t stop it. I don’t want to stop it. It’s the most mind-bending experience of my life.

And just when I think it’s starting to ebb, Dex grabs me, his mouth back against mine, and he stills, growing rigid. His cock thickens, and then I feel it pulsing against the contractions of my pussy. Every grunt and groan and breath and word from him tickles my lips, all the while I feel him filling me up.

His mouth moves against mine, kissing me now, pulling me tighter into him, and then dragging me off the counter and onto the floor.

I can’t help my laugh. “What are we doing?”

He laughs with me. “I can’t stand. My legs are absolute jelly, but I couldn’t leave you up there without me. I wanted a snuggle. I wanted to hold you against me.”

He tucks me against his chest, holding me close and running his hands through my hair, and damn him. Damn him for being so perfect. For being the man I deserve. The one I’ve been seeking without knowing it all these years.

His cock is still half inside of me, even as wetness starts to pool between us.

“I’m leaking on you.”

He groans, thrusting up, pushing himself back into me. “Better now?”

I giggle, and it makes him groan again, louder this time, but the sound quickly dies as he props himself up and then stares at me.

“In my mind, I feel like a broken record. After every time I’m inside you, I think, wow, that was the best sex of my life. I’m thinking it again, only it’s so much stronger. That wasn’t just sex to me, Faina. Maybe I shouldn’t say that, but it wasn’t. I’m not sure what the right word for it is, but sex is too basic and clinical for what that was.”

Before I can formulate any sort of a response, he kisses me, and that kiss turns into round two on the floor. After that, we both clean up, and I throw on pajamas because, despite his protests, I’m not eating dinner in only my bra and panties. Somehow the food isn’t ruined, just cold, and after reheating it and watching Dex open a bottle of wine like a pro, we take our plates and sit in front of the fireplace instead of at the dining room table.

The only lights we have on are the Christmas tree that glows with its multicolored lights, and the fire, making it cozy and romantic.

It’s perfect. So perfect.

“That wasn’t you!” I gasp, trying not to choke on my mashed potatoes—my absolute favorite. Dex has had me laughing practically nonstop since we sat down.

He gives me a dubious look. “Princess, are you honestly questioning if I was the mastermind behind swapping the internet button with the shutdown button on our math teacher’s computer to get us out of having to take our senior exams? I’m hurt, you didn’t know it was me.”

“It took him all class to finally figure out that’s what happened. I thought the poor man was going to cry every time his computer shut down.”

He grins deviously, “It was bloody fantastic. I don’t think you could do that now on current computers.”

“Likely not,” I agree. “Shame. It was a great prank. I’m shocked you didn’t try to take credit.”

“And get suspended?” He shakes his head, making a tsking noise. “No thanks. My dad would have murdered me.”

I lift my wine glass, rolling the crystal back and forth in my hands. “Do you remember when the power went out?”

He gives me a devilish grin, moving in closer to me. “You mean when you were in wellness?”

My eyes pop open wide. “Yes. But how did you know I was in wellness?”

He starts laughing. “You and Ava were both in wellness. It was the middle of the day on a Friday, and Will wanted alone time with Ava without having to sneak around parents.” He looks down for a moment, and then slowly his head lifts until he’s staring at me through his lashes. “I was keen to be around you a bit too, so I called in a favor to a bandmate who was also an electrician. He cut the power to the school for me.”

I blink rapidly at him. “You did that to spend time with me?”

He gives me a boyish smile, almost shy, complete with dimples. “I took you out for lunch. Remember?”

I shake my head and then think deeper about it. “It was the four of us.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Was it?”

My eyebrows slant together as the memory pieces back together. “We all had lunch together, and then?—”

“And then we went to Will’s house. He and Ava went off somewhere, and you and I went swimming.”

“You didn’t talk to me,” I say as the memory plays through my head. “We swam together for about half an hour before your friends started showing up, and you didn’t say much of anything.”

He takes a sip of his wine. “You made me nervous.”

I cackle. “Right. Dex Chapman nervous over a girl.”

He shakes his head in protest. “I was. You asked me how I did on one of our English papers?—”

“Othello.”

“Right. That was the bloke. I hadn’t read the book. Just watched the movie and didn’t do well on the paper. I was embarrassed and didn’t want you to know.”

“Oh.” I blink at him, at a bit of a loss on what to say.

He leans in and kisses my lips. “Your brain intimidated me, and your beauty tied my tongue.” Another kiss. “Honestly, you were so much like Will, and I was so much like Ava, I often wondered how they matched up so well, and why he never went for you instead when you truly are nearly physically identical.”

“Opposites attract?” I shrug.

“Must be, because I never felt a thing for Ava, and not simply because she was my best mate’s girl. But you? I looked at you, and my heart raced, and my mind spun.”

He’s making my heart race and my mind spin right now. “I still can’t believe that.”

“Believe it, love. It’s all true. You were my high school crush. My unicorn girl.”

I raise an eyebrow, but those damn butterflies can’t keep the girlish smile from my lips even as I say, “And all those girls you fooled around with?”

He gives me a crooked smile, rubbing the tip of his nose against mine. “I was a teenage boy. Sex was fun, and the girls were willing. I never dated any of them. Not seriously anyway.”

“No, you were always too into your music. Ava, Will, and I snuck into that club a few times to watch you with your band. Even then, I think we all knew you were the real thing and would make it.”

“It was do or die for me. I never considered anything else as an option. What about you? What made you go into marketing and PR?”

“I grew up in LA,” I point out, as if that should make it obvious.

Dex is unimpressed. “That’s why you went to Harvard and studied that?”

“I took a marketing class my freshman year, and it seemed interesting. I was going to be an English major and chemistry minor, and I had no clue what I wanted to do with either of those. My marketing professor told me I had a natural knack for seeing how a product could be marketable and to try doing the same for people. So I did both, and it was fun. Creative almost, because, as you know, sometimes you have to spin shit into sugar and make it smell and taste good.”

He laughs. “Well, you’ve certainly done that with me. No one has mentioned my breakup with Elise since I got here, and even Elsie is staying quiet about it now because she was hired on to work for a large firm and doesn’t want to bollocks it up.”

“Well, now that you’re in the clear with your label and endorsements, what’s next for superstar, Dex Chapman?”

“Finish writing this album and then go into the studio to lay it down. After that, it’s all promotions and tours and things to sell it.”

I scrunch my nose. “Do you hate that side of the business?”

“The touring? Never. I love playing to a live audience. The schedule is grueling, but so worth it. I don’t love interviews or guest appearances on talk shows. I never do well with those.”

“You just need a better coach.”

His lips glide against mine, and then he goes back to his food. “You mean like a PR coach with lovely blue eyes and hair of golden silk?”

I roll my eyes. “Nope. Definitely not what I mean.”

“Ah, my beautiful little elf, if only I could convince you.”

I turn away, going back to my own food as I stare up at the Christmas tree. I’ve loved helping him with his posts and comments. I’ve loved the excitement and flutter of being the one to help fix his image. But I don’t love being the woman in the spotlight, and I’m not sure what else comes from being with Dex.

“What did you use to do for Christmas with your parents?” I ask, changing the subject as I take a sip of my wine. He hasn’t talked a lot about his family. I know he’s an only child, and I remember his dad being sick when we were in high school. I believe he died shortly after we graduated, and he mentioned his mom passing a few months back.

He leans back against the couch, chewing as he thinks, his gaze cast out toward the dancing orange flames in the hearth. “When I was a boy and we were living in London, we’d eat dinner at a posh hotel with some of my dad’s mates and business acquaintances.” He turns to me. “It was miserable. I hated it. I had to wear an itchy suit and be on my best behavior. Once we moved to LA, it was parties. Same sort of deal to them though. Eventually, once I got old enough, I’d crash Will’s Christmas. But after my dad died and Mum and I moved back to the UK, and I was starting to make some waves as a musician, Mum and I mostly hung in. We had our cook make us turkey and Christmas pudding with all the trimmings, and we’d drink and tell stories about my dad.”

“You miss them.” It’s not a question, but he nods all the same. “I miss my parents too. Especially this time of year.”

“I wasn’t looking forward to Christmas this year. Knowing it would be my first after losing Mum. I have to say, this might be one of the best Christmases I’ve ever had.” He leans in and kisses me softly, pulling back and licking his lips. “And meals for that matter. If your whole PR business doesn’t work out, I might hire you to be my personal chef.”

I roll my eyes again. “Har, har. I’d poison you within a week.”

A smile lights his face, making his dimples come out. “I suppose it’s a good thing our little adventure won’t quite make it past that point.”

I quirk an eyebrow. “I suppose so.”

He leans forward, his smile now against my own. “You don’t mean that, and you know I don’t either. You’re having as much fun with me as I am with you. Try and deny it, princess, but we’re both caught in each other’s webs. Struggling is futile.”