Embracing Everly (13 page)

“It’s fine.” I swallowed hard and waved her off when what I really wanted to tell her was to let her hands go wherever the hell it was they wanted to go. “I don’t have time today for you, Ev. I need to get a shower and get some shit done.”

Her head dropped down. “I know you feel it, too,” she whispered. “Why are you pretending it’s not there all of a sudden?” Both of her hands settled on either side of my waistband, the soft tip of her fingers resting on my skin felt like satin. She lifted her chin meeting my hooded eyes. I forced myself to push her arms back down to her side.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Angel. I know you think something is going on here,” I said as I motioned between the two of us. I swallowed the spit suddenly clogging my throat. “But there is no ‘us.’ I don’t date. I don’t do romance, flowers or any of that shit you’re looking for. It’s not me. It’s not in my DNA.”

“I see you, you know, and you’re dead wrong. I saw it in the back of that cruiser last night, and I saw it when you tore yourself away from my apartment. Something changed between us. When you kissed me, Mick.”

“Everly, I need you to go.” I cut her off. “I’ve got this huge ass exam that I need to hit the library for, and I’m already behind. I need to shower and get going.”

“Fine.” She grinned as she swung the door open, but hesitated looking over her shoulder. “I’m going to win this one, you know?”

Unable to deny her challenge or that cute little grin, I agreed. “Give it your best shot, Angel.” I smiled back knowing there was no way this sweet little thing was going to wreck my job or make a bold enough move to make me crack, but it would be fun as shit watching her try. “I’m going to warn you now; it’s going to take a lot more than that cute little body you’re rocking and a pretty face. Even those come- fuck-me-hell-on-heels that I love won’t break me.”

She slammed the door and I couldn’t do anything but laugh and grin like an idiot. I had held out this long, and although my will power ebbed here and there, I knew I could resist if I kept my distance. So that was my big, mature plan. Stay away. Avoid Everly at all costs no matter the temptation.

The heat of the shower was the only thing that was keeping me awake at this point. I was so dog tired that I should be back in bed, but I needed to high tail it somewhere to steer clear of one sexy as hell, Everly Moore. I ran Dawson’s warning, Everly’s smile, her eyes, those damn long lashes and the way she made me feel through my head as the steam billowed all around me. What I really needed was to find a random girl to at least get my dick sucked. My cock got hard just thinking about her. For a moment, a brief one, I thought about giving my forearm a good workout, but that was one thing I prided myself on. I never operated alone. I never had to. Why start now?

I squirted some shampoo in my hand and began to wash my hair when a cool breeze rushed into the shower, and I knew I was fucked. I didn’t turn around. I didn’t need to know why my ass suddenly had a chill clinging to it. “Angel, what the fuck are you doing?” I realized in my moment of playing her little game, I had forgot to lock my damn door, not even remotely coming up with the scenario that was facing me now. Who knew my angel was indeed a damn dirty little vixen?

Her hands wrapped around my waist. Like an idiot, I looked down and saw her pink nails dipping lower down my stomach. I moaned, unable to stop myself at how good her touch felt. “I’m winning,” she whispered in my ear. I could do this. I could play this game and win. That was what I told myself as that lovely shade of pink glided even lower.

What in the hell?
I peered between my legs to see those fucking come-get-me heels, and I knew most likely that was all she was sporting. I willed myself not to fall for it. Not to turn around because if I did, she would most definitely win this round. No man would be able to resist this offer. Not even the damn pope could pass her up. Hell, Dawson would even have a hard time. “I didn’t think you’d be brave enough to pull something like this off. If I had known, I would’ve locked the front door.”

Her lips pressed against my shoulder blade. “Aren’t you going to turn around?” I could hear the amusement in her voice and felt the smile on her lips at my refusal to face her.

“Nope.” I didn’t even know if I could; I was so fucking nervous. And Mick O’Malley didn’t do nervous. This feeling was so new to me I could barely make heads or tails of it.

My eyes closed as her hand grazed my cock, and it took everything I had not to give in. I started thinking about old ladies and my family, which always soured my mood, but nothing was working. She paused, and I could feel her finger inspecting the barbell through my penis, but she didn’t comment, which surprised me. “Are you sure about that? It feels like you want to.”

“Everly, please don’t do this. You have no idea the fire you’re playing with.” In the end, I knew she was stealing the decision away from me. She was making it for me. For us. Maybe she saw through my façade and was calling me out on it, knowing I wouldn’t make the first move. Her hand squeezed the head of my penis, and her finger tapped my piercing

I was losing.

I was gone.

“Just once, Mick. I just want one time to help me forget. One time with you.”

I mulled over her request, and I couldn’t tell if she was bullshitting me, or if she meant it. One time? I could do that. It was easy. Hell, I did it all the damn time. It was my specialty.

“One time?” I asked, before I made my final decision that may end up with me swimming with the fish if Dawson got wind of it.

Her lips pressed once again to my shoulder, but this time her tongue trailed slowly from one side to the other, making me practically come. “Yep, one time.”

Quite possibly, the biggest mistake of my life was waiting for me to turn around and end the game. My head felt fuzzy, my heart was pounding so fast I felt like I was two-seconds away from a heart attack.
Could a guy croak from just the thought of sex at twenty-five?
My legs felt like they were going to give any minute. “Promise me right now before I turn around, Angel, that this goes no further than today?”

“I promise, Mick. Now turn around and kiss me. I want to see something,” she ordered.

I released the huge ass breath I was holding and spun around as slow as my body would allow. My heart stopped for a beat seeing her naked as a jaybird. I swore I felt it actually stop and then kick back in. I raked my gaze from her beautiful head to her matching pink toenails peeping out from her heels. I looked up and whispered, “my little hell on heels.”

“No,” she shook her head with a small grin. “I’m about to be your heaven on heels.” I didn’t know any man who could turn down an offer like the one being presented to me. How the hell could I? Dawson would just have to understand. Right?

“Don’t hate me afterwards, Angel.”

“Don’t hate me.” She threw my own words back in my face with a smile, which was like a flare gun shooting off an instant mayday to my brain that she meant something by it. But I chose to overlook that as her lips inched their way toward mine. As soon as I gave in and claimed her mouth, her tongue slipped in between my lips, and the fire was ignited so quickly, I could barely think of anything else other than consuming her. I realized as her tongue explored the depths of mine that she scared me. I never wanted to lose myself in a woman, but at that moment I did. I wanted to get lost and never be found again. And even if I held steady to our one-time arrangement, she’d won. She won me, and I could never let her know.

THE MERE FACT
he couldn’t turn around when my hands touched his bare stomach was the moment I knew I had him. Emotions were flying through my head so quickly, I felt drunk. This was so far from anything I’d ever done with a man before. I was not the brazen one. The one who threw the kindling into the fire to get it warmed up. Just looking at him did that to me. He told me the same old song and dance most men tell women. But there was something in the way his eyes stayed on mine in the back of that cop car. I was pretty positive that was the moment I realized I had developed feelings for him. I felt it in the pit of my stomach that he thought about me like I was thinking of him. That he was capable of loving someone. Maybe even me.

That’s why I was standing naked wearing only my heels, giving myself away completely uninhibited and without question for the first time. I liked him before, but after last night it felt more real to me than it had been with anyone else. I never told Charlie I loved him because I didn’t. But with Mick, it felt right the way he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of me, or how butterflies fluttered all inside my belly whenever he was within breathing distance. Or, how he took the time to discover who I really was with questions and coming to watch me sing all the time. It had to be more, and I wanted to know if he felt that special spark like I had when he kissed me. I knew he felt something because I saw the heat in his eyes matched mine. And I was done waiting for him to man up and make a move.

His mouth hijacked mine like he was trying to siphon all the breath out of me. Like he needed it all to continue breathing on his own. I sagged against his wet body feeling powerless as his hands drifted down my spine, pulling me in closer. Encouraged by his touch, I lifted my hands and grasped either side of his face, holding him still as I kissed him back with all the intensity I could, showing him how I felt without saying the words.

He inched forward, hiking my leg over his hip keeping it prisoner with his hand. His other hand slipped between my legs, stroking my bareness. He pulled his mouth away, dropping my leg as he stepped back and gazed down, mouth agape. “I never would have taken you to be shaved bald, Angel.”

Water cascaded over his hair, streaming down his hard body, as he continued to ravage me with his eyes. “You don’t like it?”

His eyes lifted to meet mine, and they were filled with so much hunger and passion, I was surprised we were even talking instead of doing. “Are you kidding me, Ev? I love it,” he rasped.

Even with the water turning colder, I felt like my body was in flames once his fingers touched me again. His lips met mine with the same ferocity as before, pushing me against the tiled wall. He broke the kiss for the second time to tuck a wet strand of hair behind my ear, resting his forehead against mine. My lips trembled when he removed his mouth from my lips and the chill of the water wanting more. “You on anything?”

I swallowed, wanting to kill myself for what I was about to admit. “Yes and no.”

“Care to explain before I keep going?”

“I am on the pill, but I forgot the last day or two with everything going on. I’m sorry.”

He moved his hand up the nape of my neck, running his fingers through my wet hair, sending a shiver down my spine as he regarded me. “I’m clean. I get checked every six months.”

“Me too, I’m fine. I’ve never done it without one.”

He smiled down at me, pressing a small, gentle kiss to my lips. “Me either. I’ll pull out, yeah?”

I nodded, unable to speak.

He skimmed his tongue across my lips, separating them. He moaned deeply as I poked my tongue back out to taste his. “So sweet,” he murmured. “I don’t want to get used to you. I can’t, Ev, don’t let me.”

“Just once,” I breathed heavily, panting with desire.

He skated his fingers down my belly, soft as a feather, feeling like he was touching every sexually sensitive zone my body had. Painfully slow his fingers dipped lower and lower until I felt one finger tracing my wetness like he was committing the feeling to memory.

He paused, driving me mad with desire for him to go faster. Without worrying about embarrassment I took his hand and held it still. “More,” I begged. His finger plunged inside me as he dipped his head taking a nipple into his mouth. I sucked in a deep breath as his finger pulsed inside of me. He inserted a second finger while his thumb strummed the outside of my cleft bringing me closer to losing all reason as he pulled on my nipple with his teeth.

“Ev,” he paused and looked up at my exposed, wet breast. “You’re sure, right? This is what you want?”

“Please,” I begged as the water trickled down my body.

His eyelids closed and he stayed like that for a full second, his fingers still torturing me. “This can’t change anything.”

“Come back up here and kiss me.”

A flicker of indecision passed over his face, but it was gone a second later. Any man could have sex and make it feel good, make a girl feel special, but a kiss told everything. And the way he was kissing me, I knew he was wrong. It was going to change everything.

His lips grazed mine, back and forth; his tongue was prodding through to taste me. “I need you, Ev, right now.”

“Take me.”

He scooped me up in his arms and kicked the glass door open, leaving the water running. We toppled backward on top of his bed, not once letting our lips part from one another. His body rocked on top of mine, and I could feel his hardness pressing up against my belly. I gasped; feeling like all the air had left my body as he slipped a finger inside of me. He wasn’t gentle this time. I was so wet and ready for him it didn’t even hurt. It made me appreciate how he took charge of my body. It was like the last two men I had been with had no clue what they were doing compared to him. And regret of giving my love to another slammed into me, wishing I had saved myself for him.