Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men Book 9) (6 page)

“I, Julianna Dacia Radcliffe, being of sound mind and...” my stare roved down her dress before I hummed deep in my throat, “
very
sound body, do solemnly swear that I want nothing more on this earth than to press my mouth against the mouth of Colton David Gamble, and maybe even spike my tongue deep into his—”

She interrupted me by huffing out an impatient breath and removing her hand from mine. Then she curled her fingers around my neck and jerked me forward, smashing our mouths together.

Okay…

So I guess Julianna liked to seal her promises with a kiss. She still hadn’t said the actual words, though, which worried me.

Ergo, I resisted her…for all of half a second.

But then her lips softened against mine, and her body went warm and liquid, and fit perfectly against me. I groaned as I gave into defeat, opening up and touching my tongue to hers.

She tasted like champagne, cola, and whiskey. The mix was addictive. I needed more. I backed her toward the conference table before picking her up by the hips and sitting her back down on the hard, glossy surface.

Julianna gripped my shoulder, her nails biting through two layers of cloth. She tried to part her legs to let me fit my hips between them, but her dress would only let them go so wide. Eager to help her out, I set my hand on her knee and slid my fingers up the outside of her thigh, directly toward that cock-teasing slit in her dress.

She was soft and warm. I wanted to concentrate on that and nothing else, so I tore my mouth from hers and pressed our brows together, so I could watch my hand move. The contrast of my skin against hers made the moment even more intense. I held my breath as my fingers disappeared under the dress’s slit and gathered up the material as I headed toward her waist.

I kept expecting her to slap me and shove me away, but she only caught her breath as if she liked watching my touch.

The instant my palm met her hip, she banded her legs around my waist and used them to tug me in close. My cock slammed into the crotch of her soaked hot pink panties, straining against the zipper of my dress pants.

“Damn,” I grunted, dazed by how good it felt and how fast this was happening.

She whimpered something desperate and incoherent before gripping my hair and dragging my face down to her level. And then our mouths were attacking each other again.

“This is wrong, this is so wrong,” she chanted every few seconds between biting my lip and sucking my tongue deep into her mouth.

“That’s probably why it feels so good.” I popped a breast free from the top of her bustier and palmed it hard enough to make her moan and press into my fingers for more. Rolling the nipple under my thumb, I leaned down to draw the other breast into my mouth.

Holy shit, she tasted good.

She gasped and clutched my arm. “Oh God, it really does feel good. Don’t stop.”

I chuckled. “You like it wrong, don’t you, baby doll?”

Instead of answering, she found the front of my chest, smoothed her hands inside my tux jacket and jerked it roughly over my shoulders, then down my arms. Once she tugged that off me, she tried to unbutton my white dress shirt but grew impatient and finally just tugged it apart, popping buttons as she went.

Fuck, that was hot.

I straightened from her breast so she could run her lips over my chest. Her hot wet mouth opened over my flat brown nipple, and I gasped, not realizing I was quite that sensitive there. My cock throbbed so hard I’m surprised it didn’t poke a hole through my slacks to get to her.

I thrust between her legs with a mad, savage grinding that had her biting my nipple before looking up at me with pleading eyes.

“I want to come so bad, it aches. Oh my God, I’ve never felt like this before.”

She sounded almost scared of the sensation. With the instinctive need to ease her, I ran my hand over her cheek and kissed the tip of her nose. “I can help you with that.”

She nodded wordlessly, her big brown eyes trusting as she looked up at me. That was all the green light I needed. I reached down and backed my hips away so I could slip my fingers inside her soaked pristine pink, good-girl panties. But what I found inside was anything but good-girl. Slippery and bare, her naughty wet pussy made me groan. Hers was shaved to perfection, which drove me insane with want.

“Holy fuck,” I groaned as my thumb found the slick little muscle of her clit and made it quiver under my touch.

She jumped as if electrocuted. Then she buried her face in my chest and branded my arm with her long-ass nails as she sobbed, “Right there, right there, oh God,
right there
.”

I stroked her without mercy, massaging a circle around the area until hitting it directly and then repeating. She bowed up tight against me, right on the edge of ecstasy. Then I thrust two fingers into her while my thumb continued to strum her, and she cried out her shock.

Grinding her pussy into my hand, she clutched my sleeve and buried her face against my heartbeat as her first spasm hit hard and fast.

It was inspiring to watch her come. She fought it the entire time, tensing up, hiding her face, gripping my arm. If I’d been able to see her face, I bet she would’ve been biting her lip too, gritting the moans back deep down into her throat.

But her body wanted what it wanted, and her legs tightened around my hips, keeping me close as she ground her pussy into my hand, riding every last pulse in her orgasm from my fingers.

Nearly a minute later, a small whimpered croak escaped, and her hand loosened its death grip on my arm. Limp and finished, she pulled her face away from my shirt.

Overwhelmed by what had just happened and feeling as if I’d experienced exactly what she had, I slid my fingers free from inside her and gently extracted them from her panties.

She looked up at me, her liquid brown eyes speaking volumes with a dazed satisfaction and maybe a little underlying worry beneath that. “Holy shit.”

I smiled. “I know, right.” Then I popped my wet digits into my mouth to taste her juices.

Her eyes flared with heat. “Are you going to fuck me now?”

I drew my fingers from between my lips, licking off the last remaining flavor of her tangy essence before nodding. “Oh yeah.”

She nodded too, quite solemnly. “Good.”

I went in for a kiss and she met me without hesitation. Our tongues thrust urgently, a nearly identical imitation of what my fingers had just done to her pussy.

Julianna gripped my hair and threaded her fingers through it repeatedly. I swear, the slight occasional tug she gave my locks could be felt all the way from the roots of my hair straight down to the base of my cock.

“I love this hair,” she mumbled. “It’s so fucking soft yet thick. It’s beautiful. I want to grip it with both hands when you first thrust deep, deep inside me.”

“I can help you with that,” I rasped and went back to humping her through our clothes.

She wound her legs back around my waist, thrilling me with the sharp poke of her heels in the top of my ass. Burying my face into the crook of her neck while she molested my hair, I closed my eyes and breathed in her heady scent.

“Seriously,” she slurred, barely able to twine the length of my hair around her finger. “Do you get blond highlights?”

“Hmm?” My lashes fluttered open as I lifted my face.

Why the fuck were we still talking about hair?

Julianna examined my hair, almost obsessively. “I swear you have streaks of blond in here.”

I shrugged, amused by her total concentration but also a little irritated. My hair wasn’t exactly the most crucial thing needing her attention at the moment. “It’s possible, I guess. I was a towhead before I hit puberty.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Really? So all this gorgeous lovely shit is natural?”

“One hundred percent.” I sent her a lazy grin before nudging against her a little more lewdly to get her attention where I really wanted it. “You want to check and make sure? See if the drapes match the carpet?”

And finally,
yes
, her gaze left my hair to meet my stare.

“Fuck, yeah,” she murmured and slipped open the top button of my pants before zipping them down.

I gripped the table on either side of her hips as I watched her slip her fingers inside my Jockey shorts.

“Oh, damn. That’s what I’m talking about,” Julianna cooed as she pulled me free. She gripped me tight before sweeping her thumb over the weeping slit at the top, and then she jacked me off slowly, sensually, appearing awed by how each stroke seemed to make me bigger.

“Julianna,” I rasped, my voice hoarse because I’d let her have more fun than I could really tolerate.

She looked up, her eyes full of understanding. “Do you have anything?”

I gulped and nodded, the blood rushing from my head and making me slightly dizzy from the reality of what was happening.

When she let go of my cock, I reached down to my pants that hadn’t sagged very far down my legs yet and found my wallet in my back pocket. Meanwhile, she removed her panties.

“Holy…” Feeling it bare was one thing, but seeing it slick and swollen and shaved… “Jesus, baby doll. You should’ve left those on five seconds longer. I don’t know how I’m going to get this condom on now when all I can think about is how it’d feel bare against bare.”

And I wasn’t lying. My hands were literally shaking as I pulled the foil square from my wallet.

“I’ll put it on for you.” When she held out her hand, I nearly came undone. After an unsteady nod, I handed the condom over only to see she was still holding those virginal cotton panties in her free hand.

I couldn’t resist. “I’ll make you a deal. You take this, and I’ll take these.” Snagging her underwear from her hand, I shoved them into my side pocket with my keys.

She merely arched an eyebrow. “You’ll be giving those back afterward.”

With a chuckle, I shook my head. “Yeah, we’ll see about that.”

Poor girl really thought I was going to give them back because she murmured, “Yes, we will,” as she smiled with an assurance that turned me on more.

Then she tucked the condom package into her mouth and tore it open neatly with her teeth. I shuddered, imagining other things clutched delicately between those pearly whites.

Her gaze lifted, and I stepped closer so she could reach me. With her breasts spilling out the top of her dress, her skirt rucked up around her waist and her high heels perched on the table to either side of her so she could spread her legs open wide for me and show me her wet, bare pussy, she looked like a fucking dream come true.

It didn’t seem real.

As she drew the condom toward me, I shook my head. “We’re not dreaming, are we?”

“No.” Her lips tipped up at the corners. “I can’t believe we’re doing this either.” Then she began to slide the latex on. “It’s just…so unreal. I’m about to have sex with the little brother of the guy I’m in love with.”

C
OLTON’S
C
HAPTER
|
6

A
h, fuck, she didn’t.

Except, yes. Yes, she did.

She’d just said the only thing on the planet to turn me off.

I froze just as she covered me completely. Half a second later, she froze too, her hand still wrapped around my cock.

Then she lifted her face to gauge my reaction, her eyes huge and lips parted in shock.

We just stared at each for, like, the longest second in eternity. And then she finally began to shake her head rapidly back and forth, denying what she’d just said.

“No,” she breathed, her chest heaving with panic. “I…I…I didn’t mean it. I didn’t—”

I jerked back, dislodging her grip from me. Her eyes only grew wider and more worried.

“Yeah, you did,” I said before whirling away to yank off the condom and throw it across the room. I jerked my pants up, wincing because for some reason hearing the girl with her hand around my junk say she loved my brother still hadn’t killed my erection. It hurt like hell to shove it back into my underwear and zip it up, nice and snug and blue-balled.

When I fumbled to close my shirt, I remembered the buttons for it were scattered across the floor.

Shit.

I thrust both hands through my hair, still feeling the imprint of her fingers there.

Double shit.

“Colton?” Her timid, uncertain voice made me wince.

I turned back slowly.

She’d shoved her skirt down, pulled the bustier back over her breasts and hopped off the table so she was standing before me as if I hadn’t been about to fuck her silly.

When she saw my expression, her eyes watered and she brought her hand to her mouth before muffling out, “I’m sorry. I’m so
so
sorry. You have to know I never meant—”

Shaking my head, I whipped my tux jacket off the table and started for the door, unable to listen to anymore.

I’d totally intended to be a bigger man than this and somehow help her smooth it all out, tell her it wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t like she’d said something I hadn’t already known, and it was probably best we stopped anyway because seriously…drunk hookup at a wedding? Not the best idea. At least not for us two.

Things had morphed into hyperspeed at the drop of a hat. Her ugly, cold-water splash of the facts in our faces had actually been a good thing. We’d almost made a major mistake.

But I just…couldn’t. I couldn’t say I was grateful for what she’d said. I couldn’t stay in that room with her where I could still smell her release on my fingers and taste it on my tongue. I couldn’t…I just couldn’t even look at her.

It felt too much as if I’d just been stabbed in the heart with a really dull, really painful spoon, and I was simply unable to stick around a moment longer.

Suddenly, I hated my brother. Not because Julianna wanted him and not me, but because he’d forced me to go over to her in the first place.

If I’d just fucking stayed away, I wouldn’t have learned what her goddamn earrings meant, I never would’ve suspected she had the cutest, catchiest laugh, I never would’ve buried my fingers inside her or tasted champagne straight from her tongue. I never would’ve thought I might actually stand a chance. But now I knew all of that, and it made the realization that I still didn’t stand a chance all that much harder to swallow.

Stumbling from the room, I hit the still-quiet corridor and kept walking until I reached the door to a rear service exit of the building. Cold January air immediately filled my lungs, and I sucked it in hard, grateful for the sting it brought to my senses. A trio of waitstaff paused their smoke break to glance curiously at me. I nodded before turning in the opposite direction and pacing away for my own privacy.

Then I set my hands on my hips and bent at the waist, blowing out a long deep breath and causing a little vapor cloud to float up around me.

My arousal finally began to subside; the freezing air slapping against my bare chest helped. I straightened and shrugged on my jacket, wondering where my bow tie had gone. Thank God Brandt had forgone vests or cummerbunds when he’d rented our outfits; he was already going to kill me for losing my bow tie and the buttons off my shirt. He’d threatened me within an inch of my life not to spill anything on my tux when he’d handed it over to me earlier to wear. I couldn’t imagine how he was going to react to
this
.

And why the fuck was I worrying about his reaction to a ruined rented suit?

It was
his
fault I’d just experienced one of the worst moments of my life.

I felt like a fucking idiot. In the space of an hour—two, tops—I’d developed an extreme fixation on the girl who was hot for my big brother.

Who the fuck did that?

“Hey, man,” a voice called, dragging me from my whirling thoughts. I glanced over to find the reception workers now huddled at the back door. “This door locks from the outside,” the only guy in the group called. “And our break’s up, so if you want back in…”

I waved them off. “Thanks. I’ll just walk around to the front when I’m ready to go back.”

I certainly wasn’t ready to go anywhere at the moment.

They shrugged and disappeared into the building.

Jamming my hands into my pockets, I glanced up at a nearby streetlight, wondering how I was supposed to return to the reception anyway, with my shirt hanging open like this. But before my fingers slid too deep, I encountered damp cloth.

Shit. Her panties.

I pulled them out of my pocket and gaped at them in horror. I couldn’t keep them now, not when they only brought a pain-filled regretful memory. But when I glanced toward the dumpster only a few feet away, my fingers tightened around them protectively, unable to give them up.

An ironic snort left me.

I guess they were my consolation prize.

A consolation prize for the consolation prize.

Jesus, this was pathetic.

I didn’t want to hurt like this, didn’t want to keep replaying it over and over in my head, didn’t want to stick around out here, stuck in my own pity party.

So I liked a girl more than she liked me. Wasn’t the first time, probably wouldn’t be the last. I could deal with this. I’d only gotten to know her for a little while, anyway. We were still basically strangers. I didn’t need to mope around because I’d lost something I’d never even had.

But there was no way I was going back inside to that reception, especially when I knew she’d be there, all slick and bare under that dress…as she gazed longingly at my brother.

Yeah, fuck that.

With a new purpose, I started around the back of the building to the side where I remembered parking my truck. Just as my ride came into view and I slipped my keys from my pocket, my phone buzzed inside my jacket.

Gritting my teeth, I groaned as I pulled it free to check the text I’d just been sent. If Brandt or someone else was beckoning me back inside, I wouldn’t be able to go.

But it was from Noel, thank God.

With a sigh, I pressed the phone to my forehead and closed my eyes. While I was delighted for a legitimate reason to leave, going home to deal with
that
didn’t sound very appealing either.

But family needed me, and I couldn’t ignore the summons.

I fumbled with my keys to find the right fob, only for my vision to blur and everything to duplicate before my eyes. Damn, I wasn’t as sober as I needed to be.

In no condition to drive, I glanced around the parking lot and tried to calculate how long it’d take me to walk home when I caught sight of a couple exiting the building. The man carried a baby carrier down at his side while the woman next to him held a sleeping boy propped on her hip, his head resting on her shoulder.

I watched them until she caught sight of me. Her welcoming smile glinted from the streetlamps overhead and immediately made me feel comforted. But then, Felicity Parker always had that effect on me; it’s probably why I’d been in love with her since I was ten.

“Colton! What’re you doing out here?” Smile dying, she furrowed her brow as she took in my tattered state of dress. “Is everything okay?”

I ignored the unspoken question of why my shirt was gaping open and my bare chest was on display for all the world to see. I merely said, “Noel needs me home, but…” I glanced at my truck, not really wanting to admit how much I’d had to drink.

Felicity’s face softened with sympathy. “Too much champagne?”

I nodded regretfully.

She sighed. “I saw them leave earlier. Aspen looked pretty pale.”

Glancing up, I felt the instinctive need to defend my sister-in-law and report that Aspen was doing fine. Just fine. But Felicity was her best friend. She knew the truth. All of us closest to her knew.

Shaking her head, Felicity looked up to her husband with pleading eyes. He let out a breath before saying, “Yeah, yeah. I’ll get these two home. You take care of the Gambles.”

Face brightening with pleasure, she pushed up onto her toes to kiss his cheek. “Thank you. You’re the best husband ever.” Then she glanced my way. “Give me a second to help Knox get our crew loaded in the car, and then I’ll drive you home in your truck, okay?”

I had no reason to argue with that, so I nodded. “Okay.”

They had parked only a few spaces down from me, and went off to situate their ankle-biters. While they were doing their thing, I unlocked my truck and slipped into the passenger seat. A minute later, Felicity opened the driver’s side door and climbed behind the wheel. I held up my keys for her without a word and continued to stare out the front windshield.

“Thank you,” she murmured as she tugged them from my hand. After she started the engine, she glanced over at me, and I could feel her gaze examining me up and down.

Finally, she asked, “Do I even want to know what happened to your clothes?”

“Nope,” I answered, still staring out the window.

With a sigh, she backed out of the parking spot. “Oh, Colton. How do you manage to get into these pickles?”

I shook my head, clueless. “Just lucky, I guess.”

She made a sound in her throat, and from the contemplative tone of it, I was probably doubly lucky she didn’t say what she was thinking. A dozen years my senior, Felicity was like a second mother to me, or maybe a third mother, since Aspen was technically my second mother, though I thought of
her
as more of a first mother. Whatever the ranking, I was sure anything Felicity had to say at this moment would not sit well with me.

Because I already felt like shit.

I glanced at her from the corner of my eye to make sure she was going to keep her thoughts to herself and caught sight of the earrings dangling from her ears. They weren’t dream catchers, but I was suddenly thinking about dangly dream catcher earrings.

I have no idea why learning Julianna had suffered from childhood nightmares too had endeared me to her. Hitler had lost four of his five siblings, both his parents, given all their pensioned money to his little sister Paula, and then been forced to live in homeless shelters because of it all by the time he was eighteen, and I didn’t feel much sympathy for
him
. But I’d felt a definite connection with Julianna.