Three

THREE

I was having the weirdest few days. When I woke up from my nap after six that evening, having spent the day thinking about Dixon Bain and wondering what my life would look like if the man had stuck around, I was surprised to find Eric Downey in my room.

"Hey." I smiled at him, wondering what my last fuck buddy was doing here. We had met at a party, and because I was drunk and he was horny, we had ended up in bed. In the morning, as uncomfortable as he had looked, desperate to get away from me, I had been certain that the assistant SA and I would not cross paths again. He was, by all accounts, a closet case.

"You're awake." He smiled at me, crossing the room to stand beside my bed. "I'm so glad."

What the hell. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you."

"About what?"

He cleared his throat. "I wanted to know if you weren't doing anything for New Year's, if I could take you out."

Tall, dark, handsome man, why on earth would I say no? And yet, it was the first word that came to mind. "No," I said flatly. "My life is in a bit of a flux at the moment, but I so appreciate you coming by to ask."

He was surprised; it was all over his face. "In flux?"

"Yes."

"In what way?"

"Pardon me?" Who asked that? Just get out of there. If our places were reversed, I would have been gone already.

"Do you have an actual date planned with anyone?"

"I'm not sure what's going on at the moment," I told him, which sounded weird, but why was he pushing? "Hence the flux comment. But I'm in the middle of something right now, and I need to sort it out before I do anything else."

"Something with a guy?"

No. With a llama. "Yes," I said, trying to sound gracious.

"Important guy?"

There was nothing else to do but be honest. "Pretty much the guy." I sighed heavily.

He nodded, shrugged, held the plastered smile in place. "Okay, then, I guess I'll see you around. Give me a call if anything changes."

"I will, thanks."

And with that he was gone. No interest in me before, but suddenly… my life had definitely slid into the surreal.

"May I come out now?"

My head swiveled to the bathroom door, and there, peeking out, was Dixon Bain. "What the hell are you doing back here?"

"I never left," he stated, walking out of the bathroom. As he strode forward, I noticed how tight his jeans were and how they clung to his long, muscular legs.

"You're checking me out."

"Oh I am not," I grumbled.

His cackle was evil as he moved to the side of the bed, pulled the curtain around, shielding us from prying eyes, and then leaned over onto the small bed, into my space, and stared down at me.

"What're you––go away, you're crowding me."

"I am not. Shut up," he growled back, putting his head down on my chest, on the left side where I hadn't been shot, under my chin so that if I wanted to, I could rub my face in his hair. "God, you're a pain in the ass."

"Dixon," I croaked out his name.

"I'm hard to love."

Weird segue, and I had no response for him. Because I never had any trouble loving him except at the end.

"Most guys don't get me."

When we'd gone to school together, overwhelming was the word most used about him. Intimidating was next. He demanded your attention. He was so decisive, so instantly possessive, that there was barely time to breathe once he made up his mind that he wanted you.

"I scare men off."

"Me too," I confessed. Just the heat from his chest and shoulders was seeping into me, and it took only that much contact for my groin to fill with blood. "They run for the same reason you did: I smother them."

"I never had a problem with that," he said, lifting up and putting his hands on me, one on my abdomen, the other between my parted legs.

"Get your hands off me," I ordered without a drop of power in my voice. Just looking at him touching me, feeling the pressure against my groin made me catch my breath.

"You all right?"

"Go away."

"I don't think so." He slid his hand under the covers.

"Dix."

He leaned forward and pushed my head back with his nose, and because I had always been easy where he was concerned, I offered him my throat. He pressed a kiss there.

"You should stop."

"I should be buried to my balls in your ass, but you're not up for that yet." He began nibbling on my collarbone. "You're gonna have to ride me instead."

"I don't… I top now."

His laughter brought heat washing over my skin. "You're so fulla shit. I have never met a greedier bottom than you. You're the only guy I ever met who can get off just with a dick in his ass."

"Just yours," I blurted before I could stop myself.

"Well, that is the best news I've had in years," he said as his fingers slid over my hip and under the waistband of my sweats. "And so you know, your cock is the only one that just sucking can make me come."

It was hard to breathe.

"I bet it's still pretty," he said gruffly into my ear a second before my already hard, leaking shaft was fisted in his strong grip.

"Oh God," I moaned, my back arching up off the bed, the contact so sudden, so forceful, so perfect.

"You will let me take you home and take care of you, you stubborn piece of crap," he grumbled, releasing me only to throw back the blanket and step sideways so he was looming over my very erect penis. "I made a mistake, but punishing me when you want the happily ever after just as much as I do is just stupid."

I was going to argue, but he bent and took me down the back of his throat.

"Stop," I croaked out, terrified that a nurse, or anyone else for that matter, could walk in at any moment.

He sucked hard all the way to the base and then pulled back and swirled his tongue around the head before he lifted up to look at me. "Why stop?"

"This is a hospital," I answered, sounding ridiculous.

"I told the nurses to give me a half an hour in here because I was trying to sort out the rest of my life," he explained with that sexy wolfish grin of his that would have made my knees weak if I were standing. "They're all rooting for me."

Of course they were. The man was charming and gorgeous, and his eyes got all dark and wet when he was in earnest.

"Well—you need to stop because we're not together."

"Sure we are, baby. We've always been together."

"Dixon, you don't just get to walk back into my life after ten years and––oh!"

The man had again swallowed the length of me down his throat, and the pressure combined with the heat and the wet was turning me inside out. He stroked me when he came up and then rose over me only to bend and take absolute possession of my mouth.

I had kissed the man a million times, and each and every time, it made my blood race, pulse pound, and my skin go up in flames. The whimper rose up out of me as his tongue swept inside my mouth. And the way his lips sealed so perfectly to mine, the way I was devoured, the sound he made in the back of his throat, I understood that his ache for me was as bad as mine for him. When he lifted his lips from mine, just enough so I could catch my breath, I stared up into his dark liquid eyes.

"Dixon, I…"

"Just let me take you home," he begged, stroking me from balls to head, the husky, low sound of his voice, so sultry and deep, so sexy, made my stomach flip over. "Lemme start with that."

"It's not a good idea," I husked, even as my hips rose up off the mattress, pushing in and out of his grip, needing more contact, more friction. I wanted to come.

"Oh no?" he asked before he squeezed the hard length of me tight.

"Dix," I whimpered.

His very male grunt signaled his victory.

I opened my mouth to argue, but he bent and licked me, coating my shaft in saliva, sucking, swirling his tongue over the head, at the same time increasing the motion of his hand, stroking me hard.

"You taste so good, Ev… so good," he breathed out. "Come for me. Shoot your load down my throat. Gimme it all."

"But I… I'm… you…"

"We both know you're the king of safe sex, Ev, and I bet it even says somewhere in that chart beside your bed. As for me, I have results right here on my phone that I can show you in the morning before I take you home."

"I'm not gonna let––"

"Oh the fuck you're not," he told me before making the suction so hard, so strong, that I was helpless to do anything but explode in his mouth. I came fast and it lasted forever, because there had been no one for so long, and now suddenly, there was Dixon Bain, who had been, at one time, everything.

He sucked me until there was nothing left and then licked me clean with his tongue before leaning back to stare down at me.

"That was amazing," I told him, because it was true and because I owed that to him.

He waggled his eyebrows at me.

"I feel bad that I can't return the––"

"No," he said, and the slow smile I got sent a twinge of fresh need over my skin in a flush of heat. "I'm lookin' for more than that."

"You're such an ass."

"I know," he agreed, leaning forward. "Now let me take you home."

"You don't have––"

"Can't you see I want to?" he asked right before he bent and kissed me long and hard and used his tongue. I had one hand behind his neck and the other with a handful of his sweater. I was not letting him go.

When he broke the kiss, he was panting. "I just want to spend some time with you," he whispered against my mouth. "Tell me I can."

"You can," I acquiesced. The light that came into his face irritated me, reminded me of just how easily I had succumbed. "But just for a day or so. You have to go before Christmas."

"I know, we're both going. I'm taking you home with me."

"No you're not." I was adamant.

"Watch me."

My growl sent him into hysterics.