Sweet Alibi (41 page)

“You own me,” I panted as my hips slowed their thrusting and I emptied into her. She draped her body over mine, limp like a wet rag, her breasts crushed into my chest, her body heaving and slick with sweat. I lay back on the bed as I slid out of her and held her near me. She threw an arm over her head and sighed deeply. I dipped my head into the crook of her neck and nipped at the salty flesh.

“You fucking own me,” I murmured again.

“You own me, too. Completely,” she breathed.
 

“Good. Now that this body is mine, I want it; whenever and wherever.” A devilish grin turned my lips. “I’m not keeping my hands off you anymore.” My inner caveman reared his alpha head. I traced a fingertip around her breast and circled in, closer to the nipple, watching it pucker. I slid the pad of my thumb across the bruise I’d left on her flesh.
 

“You left your mark on me.” She grinned cheekily.
 

“Fuck, yeah, I did.” I smirked up at her.
 

“I’d probably be pissed, but I think I left my mark too.” Her eyes sparkled with amusement as she traced the spot I assumed was bruising up on my shoulder.
 

“Good. So it’s clear to everyone we own each other. No misunderstandings,” I murmured as I teased her nipple.
 

“Caveman.”
 

“From manwhore to caveman—you bring it out in me, baby.” I kissed her pretty pink nipple before laying my head back on the pillow and drifting off into a contented sleep.

Thirty-Nine

Georgia

“Who keeps calling you?” Tristan asked, tipping his coffee cup to his lips one morning in the kitchen. Every morning since we'd left Jacksonville a week ago, we'd spent together; either at his house or mine. This morning, we were at his house. I'd come over to hang curtains and put the final touches on our little remodel that had started with the salmon paint on the walls a few weeks ago.
 

“Georgia?” Tristan's deep voice cut through my thoughts.
 

“Hmm?” I lifted my eyes from my phone.
 

“Who keeps calling that you’re not answering?” He leaned against the counter, one palm supporting his body on the countertop, the other angled to his lips, coffee cup in hand. He looked edible. Sex on a stick personified. Just looking at him had my heart thudding. I was lost in him again.
 

“Don’t worry about it,” I murmured as I stepped closer to him, pressing my body against his, our hips flush. I wrapped one arm around his waist and pressed my lips to his in a delicate kiss.
 

“Mmm, I like you pressed against me first thing in the morning,” he muttered before wrapping his hand up in my hair and pulling me closer to delve into my mouth with his tongue. He devoured me. Licked me ravenously. I could feel his need growing between us. I would happily distract him like this every morning.
 

“Stop avoiding the question, beautiful,” he murmured against my lips.
 

I pulled away and rolled my eyes. “You didn’t seem to mind.”

“Your delicious body pressed against mine? I’ll never mind.” He snaked one hand up my torso to squeeze my breast. “But I still want an answer.”

“I don’t think you’ll like the answer,” I said as I leaned into him, attempting to distract him again by dusting my fingertips along the waist of his low-slung jeans.
 

“Who is it?” He pulled away as his mossy green eyes bore into me.
 

I huffed in exasperation. I didn’t want to tell him; in truth, I’d been trying to avoid it completely.
 

Tristan arched one eyebrow as he watched me.
 

“Kyle,” I murmured and averted my eyes. The silence echoed around his small kitchen. I shifted my legs and then chanced a glance at him. His face was hard as stone. His jaw was ticking, the only expression readable was the anger flaring in his eyes. “It’s not a big deal; I haven’t answered . . .” I trailed off. “Hey.” I pressed my body to his and ran a hand along his jaw. I pushed up on my tiptoes and nuzzled into his neck in the place that his delicious, fresh scent was the most concentrated. “It’s not a big deal.” I felt his body relax against mine.
 

“What does he want?” he muttered.
 

“I have to go get my stuff. I’ve put it off long enough. I also have to get Diva.” I hadn't known where I was going when I stormed out of the apartment I'd shared with Kyle, so I'd left some things behind until I was settled.
 

“Diva?”

“My cat.”

“You’ve got a cat?”

“Yeah, you don’t like cats?”

“On the contrary. I love pussies.” His lips lifted in the sexiest smirk I’d ever seen.
 

“You’ve got a dirty mouth.” I smacked him playfully.

“You love my dirty mouth and all the delicious things it can do to you.” His lips dusted along my ear. His breath tickled my neck and shot desire straight between my legs.
 

“No argument there,” I murmured.
 

“Didn’t think so. Now back to this pussy,” he whispered as he snaked a hand around my waist to grab my ass.
 

“I have to go get her. And the rest of my stuff,” I rambled, distracted by his hand kneading my ass cheek.
 

“Right. When do we go?” He slid his arm up the back of my shirt, pulling it up my back as his fingertips slid across my flesh.
 

“I . . . I . . .” I couldn’t think straight. “I have to go soon.”

“You mean ‘we.’” His lips sucked the flesh under my ear.
 

“No, you can’t.”

“Of course I can, and I will.” He sucked harder, his teeth nipping, a subtle warning not to disagree.
 

“No, you really can’t.” I pushed him away a little to catch his gaze. “Kyle will flip. He knows what happened with us this summer. And he was pissed when I left. We didn’t really leave on good terms and he’s been threatening—”

“He’s been threatening you?” His eyes hardened again. In an instant, just like that, he was back to pissed.
 

“No, not like that. He’s just been threatening to throw everything out if I don’t come get it. He even said he would take Diva to the shelter. I don’t think he would, but he’s pissed. I can't bring you with me.”

“You don’t have a choice.”

“Of course I have a choice. And that’s not it.” I crossed my arms and glared.
 

“Look, this isn’t coming out right.” His hand wrapped around my neck and he dusted his thumb along my bottom lip. He was trying to seduce me into not being mad at him, trying to seduce me into letting him have his way.
 

“Stop using your sexy skills to convince me.”
 

“Are they working?” His lips tilted on a grin. I rolled my eyes. They were so totally working. “Look, this isn’t coming out right. But,” he paused as his eyes searched mine for a moment, “the last time you left, it took you three months to come back.” His beautiful green eyes penetrated mine the entire time.
 

His words swept the breath from my lungs.
 

“Tristan.” I watched the pain register in his eyes, the memory of our time apart. “I’m coming back.” I pulled his head down to mine and rested our foreheads together. He didn’t respond. “Hey, do you believe that?” I pulled away and searched his eyes for his answer.

Forty

Tristan

Of course, I didn’t believe it. She’d made me believe she’d be back last time too. There was no way in fuck I was letting her go without me. And then some sick realization hit—I couldn’t go just to hold her hand. If she left me again, it was because she didn’t want me, but fuck that, because she was mine and I was hers. It wasn’t even an option anymore. Thanksgiving proved that. We belonged to each other.
 

The silence stretched between us in a silent standoff. I was searching for a sign that she would come back, that I could trust her. Even with Kyle.
 

“You said you always go back to him.”
 

 
Her mouth opened and closed like a fish desperate for air. I’d shocked her.
 

“How can I trust you when you said you always go back to him?” I could hear the hurt radiating in my own voice.
 

“Tristan.” She caressed my jaw with her palm. She was trying to ease the ache and it was working; her touch was intoxicating. “I can’t let you go just to babysit me.”

“Why not?”
 

She sighed in exasperation. She was crumbling; she was going to give in. Which was good, because she really didn’t have a choice in the matter.
 

“What would I tell him?”

“What do you mean?”

“About us? He’s going to want to know.”

“Fuck him. Tell him I’m your friend, your boyfriend, your lover, your neighbor; I don’t give a fuck. It’s not his business.”

“Are you those things?” she asked.
 

“Well, I hope I’m your friend, and based on the proximity of our respective houses, I think I’m your neighbor—” I grinned at her, watching her shift her body and avert her eyes.
 

“What about the others?” she finally whispered.
 

“You’re adorable when you’re uncomfortable.” My grin widened. Her eyes narrowed and she shot me a glare. “And you're irresistible when you’re angry.” I squeezed her ass cheek and caught her by surprise.
 

“You’re impossible.”

“And you love it.” I slid my hand down the curve of her ass and snaked my fingers between her legs.
 

“Irritating too,” she said just before her eyes fluttered back on a moan.
 

“I hope I’m all of those things, Georgia,” I said seriously, as I searched her beautiful face. Her neck arched as I caressed the damp flesh between her legs.

“What?” she whimpered.
 

“Your friend, your boyfriend, your lover, your neighbor. I hope I’m all of those things.”
 

“Oh.” Her breath whooshed out. “My boyfriend?”

“If you’ll have me.” I grinned and caught her lips in a kiss. I was using my charm to convince her. I knew it and I did it without shame. I was playing the cards I’d been dealt, and I played them well. She fisted her hands in my hair and arched her body into mine. I caught her with an arm behind her back as she bowed and I took her lips, ravishing her. I kissed her like my life depended on it, because it did. My life depended on her being in it. On her answer. I couldn’t give her the option of saying no.
 

“I’m afraid,” she murmured as she pulled back to take a breath.
 

“Of?” I bent over her and captured her lips with mine again, snaking my hand down her thigh and hitching it over my hips.
 

“Us.”

“Why?” She was being candid, and I needed to take advantage. She held things inside so much. I needed her to talk. I needed to know what I was working with.
 

“Your history. Our history,” she breathed.
 

“What do you mean?” I pulled my lips away from hers and searched out her beautiful browns. Her eyes were hooded with lust and her eyelashes were so long they shaded her high cheekbones. She was completely fucking breathtaking.
 

“I’m afraid . . . your history and what Kyle did to me . . . I’m just afraid.”

“Stop speaking in code, babe. What did Kyle do to you?”
 

Her chest continued to heave beneath me. She was still so turned on, it took every ounce of my energy not to forgo the conversation and take her right there on my floor. But I needed the answer. I needed to know what the obstacles were, if any.
 

“He cheated on me,” she murmured. Lust overrode any pain that she might have felt at saying those words.
 

“When?”

“For years, off and on. And with your history, I don’t know if I can trust—”

“Don’t do that. I’m not him. My history means shit. I would never, ever fucking cheat on you. You’re all I need. Do you hear me?” I tipped her chin up to meet my eyes. Her browns widened as she took me in. “I have never cheated on anyone and I’m not starting now. I told you—you’re it for me, end of story. Don’t put Kyle’s shit on me. He’s an idiot who didn’t know what he had. I can tell you, Georgia, I will never make that mistake with you. I know exactly what I have and she's loving, and empathetic, and beautiful and sexy and irresistible. And mine.” She stared at me as I finished. I waited breathlessly for her reaction. Finally, she took my head in her hands and pulled me to her in a ravenous kiss. I held her fiercely to my body as she crawled up me and locked her legs around my waist.
 

“I take it that’s a yes?” I murmured between kisses.
 

“Smart ass.” She nipped me playfully.