Unfiltered & Undressed (The Unfiltered Series) (15 page)

“What can I say? I need cash, and they can get it. I don’t care how, as long as they do.” He scowled at me then. “I answered your questions, and I ain’t got nothin’ in return. We’re done here.” He pivoted on his heel and started to walk away.

“Wait!” I called after him, holding up a crisp hundred-dollar bill I’d pulled from my purse. “Just one more question.”

He eyeballed the bill, and then gave me that narrow-eyed gaze again, but he wasn’t about to turn down the money, and he came back and snatched it from my hand. “One more,” he insisted.

“If they give you the money you’ve been asking for, then what are you offering them in return?”

His small decayed teeth made a slow appearance as his lips spread into a sickly smile. “Then, when I decide it’s enough, I’ll sign the papers giving Billy guardianship.”

I closed my eyes. This wasn’t the kind of guy who’d ever be done with them. He’d keep extorting them until Tess reached her eighteenth birthday and they didn’t need his signature any more, and hopefully he wouldn’t have bankrupted them in the process.

He turned again, and this time when I stopped him, it wasn’t with a hundred-dollar bill. “What would you say if I made you a deal?”

‡

After my run-in with Tess’s uncle Camden, I felt like I needed a long, hot shower to strip away any residual skeeze he might have left on me. He wasn’t exactly the kindly uncle who bounced you on his knee at family gatherings. I suspected he was more the type who would sell his own mother for a nickel given half a chance.

So when I came rushing through the front door, I must have somehow missed the fact that Will’s truck was parked out front, because he was there, standing square in the middle of my living room and frowning at me.

I stopped short, caught totally off-guard by his presence. “Where’s Em?” I asked, looking around nervously, my pulse picking up as I took an involuntary step back.

“She’s not here.”

Confused, I blinked. “Then…what are you…?” I tried to make sense of him being here.

“She let me in, before she left,” he explained, but there was something in the way he was saying it that made it clear he was, what, mad? Irritated? I couldn’t decipher his expression, but he looked pissed, and I tried to sort through what I might have done beyond that night at the cowboy joint. Had he discovered that I’d helped Tess with her resume, helped land her a job, was that what this was all about? There was no way he knew about his uncle, or our arrangement; Camden was repulsive, but he wasn’t
that
stupid. “I told you, I do maintenance around here. Your roommate called the owner about a flickering light—said it was driving her crazy. Landlord asked me to come check it out.”

I nodded, sort of, and swallowed uncomfortably. Something was off.

My chest tightened, and I knew it had nothing to do with being this close to Will. Well, it had less to do with being this close to him. I glanced uneasily at his toolbox, at the tools strewn around on the drop cloth he’d spread over the floor, but Will remained silent, his eyes never leaving me.

Part of me wanted to flee, to avoid that probing scowl of his. But the other part…God, I’d wanted to see him for so long that even having him glare at me was almost liberating, which made me feel like one of those pathetic girls I’d always mocked for needing a guy to make them complete.

And then I saw it. “What the fuck?” I whispered, my eyes darting from my duffle bag, which was lying on the floor behind his tool box, to Will, who was still watching me, and I realized that’s what he’d been waiting for: for me to realize I’d been caught.

“You took the words right out of my mouth, Lauren.” He crossed the room, meeting me in two long strides. His kept his voice low, like he was worried someone might be listening, the way I always was. “I was gonna ask you the same thing,
what the fuck
? What the hell is this all about?” He gripped my arms, and his intense eyes were drilling into mine.

I wanted to tell him it wasn’t my money, but he’d clearly already figured it out; the duffle bag had my initials on it—embroidered on the side, a gift from my parents when I’d gone away to college. “It’s not what you think.”

“What do I think?”

His hands on my arms was distracting. Goosebumps peppered my skin and my body was double-crossing me. I wanted to be indignant, but at the same time, I wanted him to touch me. To kiss me. To make me melt like warm, liquid butter.

His brow wrinkled and his thumbs twitched, setting my skin on fire beneath his touch. “Lauren, are you in some kind of trouble?”

I looked up and opened my mouth, trying to formulate an answer, something to explain what I’d done, or to explain it in a way that would keep him out of my problems—keep him safe. But I didn’t have to.

His mouth, when it claimed mine, was demanding, and I responded in kind. I’d spent too many weeks thinking about this, about him, and I threw my arms around him, gripping the back of his shirt like he was a lifeline I was unwilling to let go of just yet.

This was exactly what I’d wanted, and having Will against me was like holding onto solid steel. I molded to him, soft and pliable, trembling when his tongue found mine.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he whispered roughly against my lips. “I’ve thought about this every single second of every single day.” He reached into my hair and tangled his fingers through it. “God, you taste insane. I can’t get you out of my head.” His voice came out rough and raw, and the second his meaning sunk in, I stopped worrying about what I
should
do.

I drew him away from the living room toward my bedroom. I was done being the unattainable girl. I was unwilling to let go of him, and our feet were clumsy as we stumbled over each other in a tangle of limbs. I kicked off my shoes and slammed the door behind us.

I’d never felt more sure of anything in my life, not even the day I left Arizona behind once and for all.

When I finally pushed him away, I reached for the bottom of my shirt and gradually, deliberately, the way I would have if I’d been hiding my identity in front of my webcam, teased the edge of it up, revealing my belly, and then my bra, in a slow, provocative display. I wanted Will more than I’d ever wanted anything, and seeing him look at me the way he was, from beneath his hooded lids, his eyes glazed and his expression filled with longing, I knew this was right.

It was freeing to strip in front of a real person, someone who knew me, who I was about to give myself to. I felt powerful, strong. More so as I watched Will’s jaw drop. This was the best high ever.

“You are so fucking sexy,” Will growled, no longer content to wait by the door. He caught me in his arms just as I’d tossed my jeans on top of my t-shirt.

His smell and the strength of him beneath my bare skin made my insides quiver. I let him lift me and carry me the rest of the way to my bed. We were still kissing as he landed on top of me as we fell on my bed, and I wrapped my legs around him.

“I have a condom,” I said breathlessly, reaching for my nightstand, because even though I was still a virgin, Emerson thought that if she gave me enough condoms, eventually I’d be forced to use them. So, I got them for birthdays, Christmas, and even obscure holidays like Flag Day. The first one I pulled out was glow-in-the-dark and had a jack-o-lantern on the wrapper—a Halloween gift.

Will grinned. “I got this.” He reached for his wallet, and I wasn’t sure if I should be offended that he was so prepared at the drop of a hat, or relieved not to have to dig through Em’s assortment of novelty rubbers.

I took the packet from him, and he looked a little surprised. I’d never done this before, any of it, but I couldn’t get over the rush of power I felt. I thought I’d be uncertain or shaky, but I reached for his jeans, undoing his zipper, and when Will whispered, “Jesus, Lauren…” it only fueled my confidence.

I pushed him back on the pillow and straddled his hips as I leaned forward, letting my hair spill around his face as I kissed him. I pulled his shirt up so my hand could probe the ridges of his muscled stomach, and my fingertips slipped just beneath his waistband. I grew bolder, and my fingers roved lower until they closed around the silky skin of his erection.

My throat squeezed slightly, since this was the point where Will had stopped me before, when we were in the pool. But he didn’t stop me now. Instead, he bucked up against me, his kiss growing deeper as he encouraged me. His hands reached for my hips, and together we rolled over until he was on top of me now. His strength was all around me, and he braced himself with one hand as he tore at his own shirt, ripping it off. I stared at his wide chest, at his sculpted abdomen and the broad, beautiful muscles of his shoulders, until eventually, I looked into his eyes. “I want you,” I gasped, and he shot into action.

His jeans were gone in a second, with his briefs right behind. I would have taken my own bra off, but I didn’t have to, Will reached behind me, and with a well-practiced flick of his fingers, it was unclasped, and his hands were beneath the front of it, cupping my breasts hungrily as he slipped it out of his way. When his mouth fell on the hard tip of my nipple, I gasped again, my entire body shivering. His skin against mine felt like nothing I’d ever known, dry and electric, and I arched up, trying to find him, murmuring his name over and over.

Will tugged my panties down from my hips, throwing the last of my clothing on the floor with the rest. I’d meant to put the condom on for him, but when he reached for the wrapper, it was buried inside my clenched fist.

Everything was hazy, except Will. His hands were on me, his lips too, and everywhere they touched, I felt fevered. When his fingers reached between my legs, I parted them willingly, and when he shifted so he was between them, I could feel the tension coming off him in waves. I wanted to tell him it was okay, that this was right, but my voice was caught behind a thick knot of desire in my throat, and my head was spinning.

His fingers slid into me, first one, and then another, and it was like lightning bolts jolting through me in the most exquisite way. They were slick and white hot, and instead of recoiling, I strained toward them. I needed to be closer. I craved that sensation. I clawed for his hips, drawing him to me, knowing he was the only thing that could fill that need.

Will moved, so he was poised directly above me then, and I felt the tip of him, that throbbing, rock-hard tip of his cock, slip just inside of me. He stilled like that, every muscle in his body remaining perfectly rigid as he gazed down at me. He was so amazingly perfect.

I wanted to tell him it was okay, but I couldn’t find my voice, so I said it with my eyes.
It’s okay
, I told him, and he thrust the rest of the way inside me.

I squeezed my eyes shut against the brief surge of agony, and Will froze. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered, but the pain had passed by then, and the most incredible swell of urgency consumed me. Ecstasy unleashed as Will, no longer able to stop himself, withdrew and thrust again.

“Oh my god,” I uttered, reaching for him as I slowly began to mimic his rhythm, until we were moving together. I locked my legs around his, and his fingers laced through mine while his lips traced my cheeks, my neck, my mouth. Inside, the sensation was building, and even though I’d never done this before, I knew what I was so impatient for, and I kept searching for it, letting Will show me the way.

When I reached that crest, I squeezed my eyes shut again, but this time not because I was in pain. This time it was because my entire world exploded in the most amazing, most shattering way. I gasped and clutched Will, while he stilled protectively around me, letting me cling to him while he rained gentle kisses over my forehead and cheeks and whispered how beautiful I was.

And when my body finally relaxed, and my breathing began to even out, Will took one final thrust as he, too, stiffened. When he finally collapsed against me, I felt his breath warm against my cheek.

“Dammit, Lauren, why didn’t you tell me you were a virgin?”

I grinned. “That’s the worst pillow talk ever.”

“Considering what I just learned about you, it’s the
best
pillow talk
you’ve
ever had.” He rolled onto his side, propping himself on one elbow and stared down at me. He reached out and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.

Sighing, I asked. “Would it have mattered?”

“It might have. Hell, I don’t know.” He pulled me closer, tucking me against him. I couldn’t help noticing how perfectly we fit together. “Probably not, but you could’ve at least warned me.”

I wiggled a little, my hip rubbing right against his crotch, and I could feel him getting hard all over again. “That was sort of the point. I didn’t want you to change your mind.”

He drew his hips away, just the barest amount. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“Stop. I’m fine. It was…” I leaned up so my lips could reach his neck, and I let my teeth nip him playfully. “It was fucking awesome.”

His laugh rumbled against me. “Now that’s some kickass pillow talk.” He bent his head so I could reach him, and he kissed me again. My lips felt raw, but I parted them and our tongues met. I doubted I’d ever get tired of this, of Will. He tasted like every fantasy I’d ever had, felt like heaven. I could hardly believe I’d waited so long to do this, or that it had taken me so long to find someone like Will to do it with.

“I’ve wanted this for so long,” I sighed, our breaths lingering together.

“Really?” He laughed. “Because the last time I saw you, you told me to stay the hell away from you. I sorta took you seriously.”

I felt like such a jerk. How many times had I replayed that night over in my head? The way I’d drunkenly shouted at him in the bar, right before I’d thrown up and had to be carried out—by Will, no less—only to tell him the exact same thing again in his truck. No wonder he’d taken me seriously. He had no idea that Lucas had set me straight about Tess.

“Things changed,” I said, hoping I wouldn’t have to explain that I’d thought he had a girlfriend. I slipped my hand to his waist, letting my fingers explore more leisurely this time, and he hardened beneath my touch.