Guilty Pleasures: A Collection (12 page)

She grew dizzy over the probability that Shane had been her secret admirer all along.

“Oh, God,” she breathed in shock. “You’re . . .”

“The One For You,” he finished before she could, giving her the screen name he’d used over the past few days.

And now, it held a deeper, more intimate meaning.

She shook her head wildly, feeling so overwhelmed and confused. “I don’t understand. What about the woman you’re trying to impress?”

Finally, a slow, hopeful smile lifted his lips. “You’re that woman, Alyssa.”

“You made all those changes for me?” she asked in disbelief. “Your clothes, your hair, this new image of yours . . .”

He nodded. “Because I hoped that those changes would show you that I can be everything you’re looking for in a man, inside and out.”

Her heart squeezed tight and tears burned the back of her throat, because she so
wanted
him to be the man for her, but she didn’t know if she could be the kind of woman he needed in his life. And she didn’t give a damn about his nice, preppy clothes and clean-cut image. She loved him just the way he was,
before
his transformation.

Oh, Lord
, she loved him
. More than the sibling she never had. More than the best friend he was. She loved
everything
about Shane Witmer.

Up at the house, they could hear the countdown for the stroke of midnight begin. In ten more seconds, it would be New Year’s Day.

She stared at Shane, who was standing in front of her so patiently, waiting for her to make a decision—to say or do something to let him know where he stood with her now. But she couldn’t bring herself to speak. He’d gone all out to be her secret admirer and change his appearance to please her. He’d made himself vulnerable for her, and was now facing the possibility of her rejecting him.

As shocking as it was even to her, she had no intentions of turning him away.

But she was merely a woman, with a woman’s heart and needs, and she was only so strong. She didn’t want to be alone tonight. Didn’t want to go home to an empty bed and dreams of Shane. She ached for him, and it was a need she could no longer deny.

The guests at the party hooted and hollered and starting singing, Auld Lang Syne, as the clock struck midnight.

“Happy New Year, Alyssa,” Shane said, and made no move to hug her as he normally would.

No, she realized he was waiting for her to make the first move, whatever it might be.

Her mind told her to get the hell out of there before she did something she regretted later, but her emotions . . . oh, Lord, they were telling her to follow what was in her heart. What had been there for years.

Before she lost her nerve, or came to her senses, she closed the distance between herself and Shane, curled a hand around the nape of her neck and brought his mouth down to hers for a hot, deep, and wholly passionate kiss. And nothing in that moment mattered but kissing this man who meant everything to her.

Shane didn’t hesitate to respond. His warm palms framed the sides of her face, and he angled her head for a deeper, more demanding possession. Their tongues touched, entwined, mated, and she moved in closer, drawn to the heat of his body. Their hips aligned, and he was already hard and thick, and her own body softened, growing damp with desire, burning up with need.

Too soon he ended the kiss and stared deeply, steadily, into her eyes, so that there was no mistaking the depth of his feelings for her. “I want you, Alyssa.”

“I know.” Her words were hushed, almost a whisper, and it was a major battle to keep her fears out of the equation. “Even though I know I shouldn’t, I want you, too.”

“Be with me tonight.”

His request was simply, eloquently stated, leaving no doubt in her mind what he was asking.

Her answer was just as meaningful. “Yes.”

Alyssa had been in Shane’s bedroom many times before, but never under such intimate circumstances. They stood beside his bed, which he’d turned down, and gently clasped her hands in his much larger, warmer ones. They were both still fully clothed, but she couldn’t remember ever feeling so bared and vulnerable in her whole entire life, as she did in that moment.

“Are you sure about this, sweetheart?” he asked as he tenderly rubbed his thumbs over her knuckles.

Sweetheart
. That was an endearment he’d never used with her before. Already there were subtle changes happening in their relationship, and they hadn’t even slept together yet. She didn’t want to think about the more devastating changes that might occur between them come the morning.

She reached up, pulled the pins from her hair, and let it tumble around her shoulders in a mass of disheveled curls. “Don’t ask me that question right now, Shane,” she said, because if he gave her too much time to contemplate the answer, he wouldn’t like what she had to say. The only thing she was certain of at this very moment was wanting this one night with him. She’d deal with everything else tomorrow.

“I don’t want to think about anything right now except you and me, together.” Smoothing her hands up his chest, she went to work on the buttons of his shirt. He’d removed his jacket and tie as soon as they’d walked into his house, which made her job of undressing him all that much easier. “Tonight, I just want you to make me
feel
.”

He charmed her with one of his devastatingly sexy grins. “Oh, I plan to.”

She wanted to make him feel, too, and set out to do so. As she bared his throat, she leaned in pressed her nose to his neck and inhaled his warm, male scent. When all the buttons on his shirt were unfastened, she pushed the fabric over his broad shoulders and along his arms while planting soft, warm kisses down his muscular chest.

He groaned raggedly and threaded his fingers through her hair as she flicked her tongue over a rigid nipple, then the other. Her mouth came back up to his for more of his slow, soft, sensual kisses while her hands unbuckled the thin leather belt at his waist. He reached behind her, unzipped her dress, and with a firm tug it slithered down her body and pooled on the floor at her feet. His slacks joined the array of clothing, leaving him clad in only his boxer-briefs, and her in a sheer, lacy bra and silky panties.

Lifting his lips from hers, he took a step back and looked his fill of her, his eyes darkening with a hungry heat as he traced a finger along the upper swells of her breasts, then into the full cleavage, where he found the front clasp to her bra and deftly unsnapped it. The cups fell away, releasing her heavy, swollen breasts to his gaze.

He pushed her bra straps over her shoulders and down her arms. “I’ve been waiting a lifetime to see your breasts, to touch them,” he murmured as he delicately plucked the stiff peaks, then filled his palms with the mounds of flesh.

The heat and pressure of his hands on her breasts felt so good, as did the scrape of his callused thumbs across her nipples. She ran her hands down his smooth back, let her fingers slip beneath the waistband of his underwear until she cupped his firm buttocks in her palms. Then she leaned into him, so her breasts were flattened against his chest, and began kissing her way down his torso, until she was kneeling before him and she was eye-level with the impressive length straining against his snug boxer-briefs. She nipped at him through the cotton, heard him growl deep in his throat, and started dragging that last barrier downward so that she could touch and taste him for real.

He fisted her hair in his hand and gently tugged her head back so she was looking up at him. “Alyssa . . . you don’t have to do this.”

She licked her lips. “I want to.”

In the next instant his underwear dropped to his feet and she was graced with the beauty of his completely naked body, all hot and aroused for her, which was such a heady thought. She wrapped her hand around his erection and brushed her thumb over the moist tip. His hips bucked toward her, and she smiled as she slowly took him into her mouth, every single hard inch of him. He tasted smooth against her tongue, the shape of him exotic and all male, and it didn’t take her long to discover the rhythm and friction that pushed him close to the edge.

He shuddered and his fingers tightened in her hair to pull her back up, and because she wanted him inside her when he came, she followed his silent command.

“God, you have such an incredible mouth,” he said as he grazed his thumb along her still damp bottom lip. “Now, it’s my turn. Lay down for me.”

She moved onto the bed, still wearing her panties. Shane crawled up over her, with his knees bracketing her thighs and his hands braced on the mattress by her head. His eyes were dark and hot as he stared down at her. “Do you remember what I told you during one of our on-line conversations about kissing being the best part of foreplay, along with all those sensitive, erotic spots I enjoy kissing?”

Her neck, her breasts, her belly, her thighs
. Each body part began tingling in anticipation. “Yes.”

“Good, because I’m going to kiss you in every one of those spots.”

And then he made good on his promise. He started with her mouth and slanted his lips across hers, letting one kiss melt inevitably, enticingly, into another, until her entire body grew soft and pliant and anxious for his mouth to move on to those other erogenous zones.

In his own sweet time, he nuzzled her neck and grazed his lips and tongue and teeth down her throat to her breasts. She gripped the sheets in her hands, writhing impatiently beneath him, and nearly sighed in relief when he closed his lips over a nipple, sucked her into his warm, wet mouth, and swirled his tongue along the sensitive tip.

He followed the curve of her breast with his lips, marked her with little love bites here and there, and pressed kisses along each of her ribs before dipping his tongue into her navel. By the time he reached the waistband of her panties, she felt as though she was going to come right out of her skin.

But Shane had more pleasurable pursuits in mind, and after stripping away that last scrap of material he settled between her legs, using the gentle pressure of his hands to spread her wide. He smooth his flattened palms up her thighs, followed by soft, open-mouthed kisses, until both met up at the most feminine part of her. His thumbs delved along her sex, then parted her flesh. She felt the heat of his breath first, the slow, languid stroke his tongue second, then two fingers push deep, deep inside her as he closed his mouth over her, giving her the deepest, wettest, hottest kiss yet.

The moan that escaped her was long and satisfying. Lost in the ecstasy of his selfless giving, she pushed her fingers through his shortened hair and lifted her hips, deepening his penetration. Her orgasm hit, strong and powerful, and she surrendered to the incredible, mind-blowing release with a low, keening cry.

She panted, trying to catch her breath, her rushed climax leaving her weak and pliable. When she finally came to her senses again she found Shane sheathing his shaft with a condom, then he was sliding up and over her body and lacing their fingers together at the side of her head. Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around his waist, and closed her eyes when she felt the head of his sex start to push inside of her.

“Open your eyes and look at me, Alyssa,” he demanded in a rough, barely restrained tone of voice.

Unable to deny him anything, she did as he asked, and felt her heart leap in her chest at the emotion shining in his eyes.

“I love you,” he said, and then he lowered his head and kissed her tenderly at the same time he thrust into her, claiming her body as surely as he’d stolen her heart.

As he made love to her in every sense of the word and she shattered once again in his arms, Alyssa knew she would never be the same.

And neither would their friendship.

#

Shane feel asleep with Alyssa curled up to his side, with her arms around him and their legs entwined, and woke up in the early morning hours to find her attempting to slide quietly out of his bed so as not to disturb him.

As she stood and turned to look at him, he closed his eyes again, knowing without a doubt that she had every intention of leaving him before he had a chance to wake up. She was trying to avoid an awkward morning after scene, and he wasn’t about to spoil her plans with a confrontation that would cause her to shut him out completely and emotionally. He knew her well enough to know that was her method of operation, and he was a fool for thinking that his declaration of love last night would change anything between them this morning.

He listened to her move around the room and pick up her clothes, disappointed at her covert exit, but not surprised. He heard her head down the hall to the living room and quietly make a call to a cab company to pick her up, and then she came back to his room again.

He sensed her standing by the side of the bed, and it took every ounce of control he possessed not to open his eyes and beg her to stay.

He heard what sounded like a soft sob, then she whispered in a soft, aching voice, “I love you, Shane. So much it hurts.”

And she obviously didn’t know what to do about those feelings. She was afraid of being in love, afraid of letting those emotions consume her to the point that if something should happen to the person she cared for, she’d never be able to fully recover from the loss.

Shane had given Alyssa everything last night, his heart and soul, and there was nothing left that he could do or say to convince her that they could have a future together. It was up to her to believe in herself. And in him. She had to come to him on her own, and be willing to meet him halfway. Mostly, she had to be willing to trust in him and what they shared together.

But until then, all he could do was be the best friend he’d always been to her—even if that wasn’t enough for him any longer.

#

Alyssa returned home from spending the night with Shane, feeling guilty for the cowardly way she’d snuck out on him that morning. But a sense of panic had driven her, and she’d needed the time and space away from Shane to deal with the fact that they’d slept together . . . and just how in love with him she truly was, and what all that meant to their friendship and future.