Friends With Benefits (14 page)

“Like…a girlfriend?” she whispered hesitantly.

He felt like he was about to jump out of an airplane, hoping like hell his parachute worked, hurtling into a gut-wrenching free fall, not knowing where it would end.

“Yeah.” He blew out a long breath. “Like a girlfriend. I was jealous of Liam, because after we slept together I thought that meant we were moving into a different kind of relationship. You know.”

“Oh.” Her body softened against his. “Mitch. Why didn’t you say that?”

“Christ, I didn’t know I
had
to say it,” he said, just a little defensively. “I thought I
showed
you how I felt. I thought you would
know
after we slept together, that’s what that meant. And then, you were all, ‘we’ll be fuck buddies’, like the fact that we just had the most unbelievable sex of my life meant nothing.”

“Oh.” She breathed out a long sigh at that. “I thought that’s what you wanted. You don’t want a commitment. You don’t do long term relationships.”

“What did you want?” Mitch asked. He pressed another kiss to the side of her neck and her throat moved as she swallowed.

“I just wanted you.”

His heart grew warm in his chest, spreading heat throughout his body.

“So why did you run out here just now?” he murmured. “Tell me, Kerri.”

“I saw you with Laurel and…God, I can’t believe it…I was jealous.”

Thank Christ. He let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. “Nothing was happening,” he told her, truthfully from his point of view. “I only want you, Kerri.” He pressed himself against her, nudging his hard-on into her ass. His hands slid from her arms to her waist then around in front of her and she gave a little moan. He pulled her back against him, away from the tree, and turned her in his arms so he could look her in the eyes.

“I don’t know what will happen with us,” he said softly. “I can’t predict the future. If things don’t work out between us, yeah, there’s a chance you’ll hate my guts. To me, losing you as a friend is a pretty big risk. Do you think I’d take that big a risk for a few nights of sex?” He shook his head. “I was having freakin’ nightmares about you with those other guys. What you were doing.” He buried his face in her hair. “Kerri, I don’t want you to see other guys. Just me.”

She made a little whimpery sound. He kissed her then, taking her mouth in a long, clinging kiss, his hands gently holding her face. Her hands came up and clasped his wrists there, and their mouths connected, a slow, gentle meeting of mouths, tongues nudging, sliding. Her lips were soft and sweet, and he feasted on her mouth, all the feelings he’d been keeping inside pouring into her.

He lifted his mouth from hers, still holding her face, and rested his forehead against her. “Come on,” he muttered. “Let’s go to our room.”

They practically ran to their room, hand in hand, Kerri clutching the long skirt of her dress so she wouldn’t trip on it in her heels.

Once inside the door, Mitch grabbed her, thrust her up against the wall and kissed her—hard, demanding, urgent.

She pushed at him, but he was so big and heavy, his body crushing her up against the wall and really, she just wanted to kiss him too. Forever. She opened her mouth under his and kissed him back, hot and wet, mouths sliding, tongues swirling. Her hands gripped him and pulled him closer and she felt how hard he was as he thrust his hips forward, grinding against her.

Heat swept over her, dizziness twirled her head and she ached deep inside as the kiss went on and on, hotter and wetter and deeper. She thrust her hands into his hair and gripped tightly, a soft cry escaping her throat.

She gave a little moan, threading her fingers sensuously through his silky hair again as she dissolved between him and the wall.

After he’d kissed her into a puddle on the floor, he picked her up and walked her backward into the hotel room until they fell onto the bed. He came down with her, half lying on her, mouth on hers, hands on her face, holding her there so he could kiss her more. Her hands moved frantically over his back, clutching him, wanting more of him.

Abruptly, he sat up and yanked the tuxedo jacket off over his arms and tossed it onto the floor. Then he was back on her, kissing the skin on the side of her neck, sucking the soft flesh gently into his mouth, moving lower until he reached the curve where neck met shoulder. He sank his teeth into the muscle there and she cried out.

He reached up and turned on the lamp beside the bed.

“You look so beautiful tonight,” he said softly. “Take off that dress.”

She rose from the bed and lifted the heavy silk skirt, bunching it in her hands at her waist, and pulled it off over her head. All she wore was a blue thong, the tiny triangle barely covering her curls.

“Now you,” she said, nodding. His fingers worked to undo the white shirt. It seemed to take forever to get the pearly little studs out. They dropped carelessly to the floor, then he worked on the cuffs. Finally the shirt was off and his chest was bare, smooth and bronze in the soft light. Her mouth filled with saliva and she swallowed.

She ran her hands down her sides and over her belly and his eyes darkened as he watched her. He slid off the bed, unbuttoned, unzipped and stepped out of pants, boxers and socks in a couple of smooth moves.

She stood beside the bed, watching him. He was incredibly beautiful and incredibly aroused, his penis hard and thrusting. “How’s my lipstick?” she asked him huskily.

“Huh?”

“My lipstick.” She smiled and turned to the mirror over his dresser, touched her mouth. “Danica was right. It did last all day. Let’s see how it holds up now.”

She dropped to her knees in front of him, taking him in both hands. He cursed softly. She put her mouth on him, just the tip of his penis, sucked softly, then licked him. Her tongue swirled around the head of his cock, then lower down the shaft until she had thoroughly wet him.

“Jesus, Kerri!” His hands slid into her hair, destroying the up-do.

She drew back slightly. “Look at us,” she whispered. “Look at yourself fucking my mouth. Tell me what it looks like.”

With a groan and heavy eyes, he looked down. Opening wide, she took him in, as much as she could, loving his taste, the feel of him big and velvety in her mouth. She opened her throat and took him deep, swallowing him. He was too big to take all of him, but she tried. “Your lips are all shiny and red and swollen around my cock,” he growled, fingers tightening in her hair. “It’s so fucking sexy. Kerri…stop…”

She shook her head, sliding her lips up and down him, sucking, using her tongue, wanting him to come in her mouth. She thrilled to know how much pleasure she was giving him. His hips jerked as he thrust in, fucking her mouth. She sucked and drew on him, up and down, cupping his balls with one hand and holding the base of his shaft tightly with the other, until she felt him tighten in her hands, felt his body tense and his hands in her hair threatened to give her bald spots.

With a feeling of exultation, she swallowed the sharp taste as he came in her mouth, sucked him dry, then gently withdrew as she felt the shudders slow. His whole body trembled, and with shaky hands he drew her to her feet and kissed her.

She pressed herself against him, kissed him back with everything she had.

This was it. They’d had sex before and it had been awesome. But tonight was different. Tonight they weren’t fuck buddies, or sex pals, or Jack and Jill. Tonight they were lovers in every sense of the word.

His hands were everywhere on her body—her shoulders, her waist, her butt, her breasts, her hips. Then he lifted her hips and with a little gasp, she wrapped her legs around him. He pressed his mouth between her breasts and moved to the bed, lowering her gently to the covers.

He looked down at her almost reverently, his eyes dark and hot and intense. She put her hands up to his face, wanting to touch him, his cheeks whisker-roughened and hot, and he captured one hand, turning the palm to his mouth to kiss her there, then moving down to her wrist. He pressed a hot, open-mouthed kiss over the pulse there, holding her wrist against his mouth while he slowly breathed in and out, eyes closed.

She couldn’t think straight, every nerve in her body tingling and aching. Watching him touch her like that was almost unbearable in its sweetness, its poignancy.

He opened his eyes and they blazed so fiercely she could feel the heat.

He released her hand and she had to touch him, slide her hands over the smooth skin of his broad back, loving the feel of the corded muscles beneath, the heat of him. He lowered his head to her breast and kissed the side of it, the curve underneath, and she moaned, wanting his mouth on her sensitive nipple.

Finally he took her nipple in his mouth, sucking hard, and she shuddered helplessly, making soft little noises. “Don’t come yet,” he whispered, moving back, his face full of awe at her response to him. “I want you to come with me inside you.”

“I want that too. Now, please, Mitch.”

He tugged her panties over her hips and legs and tossed them behind him, then reached for a condom in the drawer beside the bed where he must have stashed them earlier. He paused over her, eyes searching for hers again, and when they connected, a web of intimacy enclosed them. He held his penis and pushed into her, gently, withdrawing, then pushing again further, further until he filled her completely. Once in, he reached for her hands and, leaning on his elbows, held her hands beside her head, fingers laced together, bodies joined, gazes fastened on each other.

Tears stung Kerri’s eyes at the pure beauty of the moment and she blinked rapidly.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. I feel it too.” He sighed and thrust into her slowly, languidly, as if they had all the time in the world.

She lifted against him and after long, luscious moments, he rolled onto his back, taking her with him, still joined. She straddled him, still holding his hands, and leaned down to press kisses to his chest. Then she released his hands to sit up straighter, shaking her hair back as she closed her eyes and rode him.

He slid a hand between them to her clit and stroked it, and she shifted slightly so he could find the perfect spot to rub her. Sliding up and down his shaft, she lifted her hands to her hair, breasts thrust out while sensation spiraled in her, twisting up to an almost unbearable peak.

Flames of pleasure licked over her, hotter, searing her senses. Mitch lifted his other hand to her breast, cupped it, rolled the sensitive nipple between his fingers.

Sensation whipped from nipple to womb and she clenched hard on him inside her. She opened her eyes and gazed down at him, at the masculine pleasure and pain on his face, his eyes dark and hot.

“Come for me, Kerri,” he urged hoarsely, watching her. “Come hard.”

She shifted again against his fingers and tightened everything inside her as the wave broke, weakness sliding down her legs. “Mitch,” she managed to say. “I’m…coming…”

She fell onto him, her body trembling, contracting hard around him, sparkling lights exploding behind her closed lids. Pleasure cascaded over her in wave after wave. Mitch’s arms went around her body as he thrust into her one more time and shattered too, pumping into her with long hard, pulses. “God!” he cried, arms tightening almost painfully. “God, Kerri.”

They lay like that for a long time, damp and clinging, breathing hard, hearts thudding together.

It was perfect. It was perfectly right, profoundly intimate and intimately connecting.

The tears came then.

“Don’t cry, Kerri.” Mitch tried to move her hair and lift her face so he could see her. “Please don’t cry. You’ll make me cry too.”

She sniffled a laugh at the idea of big, strong, cynical Mitch crying, and lifted her head. He wiped the tears with his thumbs, tenderly. “I’m sorry,” she said in a watery voice.

“Sorry for what?”

“Sorry for crying, to start,” she said. “It’s not an insult to your prowess, believe me.”

“A compliment?” he fished, eyes gleaming.

“Definitely a compliment,” she assured him. “It’s more than that, though. I’m sorry I’ve been such a bitch.”

“God, Kerr, never a bitch. Well, okay, maybe sometimes…”

She smacked him lightly as they both laughed and he pulled her down against him again. She snuggled into his embrace, loving the warmth and strength she felt.

Kerri didn’t know how much time had passed—ten minutes? An hour? She had dozed off and woke up in the dark room, plastered against Mitch’s hot body. His arms were around her, one hand in her hair, the other on her back. She lifted her head to see if he was awake and found him watching her, a half-smile on his face.

“You always fall asleep after sex,” he said, eyes glinting.

She smiled slowly back at him. “Sorry.”

“Hey, it’s okay. I don’t mind.”

“What time is it?”

He glanced at the watch he still wore. “Nearly ten.”

“We should go back to the wedding.”

“Yeah, we should.”

They stayed like that, not moving for a few comfortable, clinging moments, then Kerri moved away and slid out of bed. She looked at her bridesmaid dress in a heap on the floor and grimaced.