The ache in my body turned into a ravenous yearning for more as he slowed his pace then stopped altogether, gazing down at me and whispering. “I’m sorry too.”
His lips bit down on my neck and sucked, I clung to his shoulders digging my fingers into his wet skin only to lose my grip with each movement. Each kiss was another chink of my armor being stripped right along with broken pieces healing.
I squeezed my eyes shut as he drove into me, over and over again.
“Will!” I shouted his name as my eyes opened. And then locked onto his. I let him see me.
I saw him.
The controlling façade slipped, replaced with hunger.
Want.
Possession.
Our mouths met in plundering kisses. The world around us stormed, and we were the reason, his thick body heated me from the inside out as he retreated and looked at me one last time, wordlessly claiming me, owning me.
He groaned an inaudible curse as I gripped him and pulled him back where he belonged, where he’d always belonged. Our bodies trembled with the force we created together. My climax hit so hard and fast that I lost my breath, and when he kissed away the cry, I felt his body tighten and release as the rain pounded between us, pouring from his face down the valley of my breasts.
Chest heaving he kissed me again, and again, still inside me, as if he was proving that he wasn’t going to have sex and walk away.
But he was staying.
Would stay.
I imagine he would have stayed there longer had the lights not flicked on.
Had Zane not been standing there with his arms crossed and a look of worry on his face.
“Get the hell out!” Will barked without looking back, kissing me again.
“See I would…” It’s like our nakedness did nothing to the guy, he didn’t even flinch, “But, we’ve got a bit of a problem… or, I guess, you have a bit of a problem.”
Will hung his head, cursed, and shielded me with his body. “Can we do this later?”
“Don’t think you’re going to want to.” Zane hung his head, “I’ll get you guys towels. You know it’s suicide to have pool sex in a lightning storm right?”
I groaned against Will’s back, “Tell me he didn’t see me naked.”
“He… didn’t see you naked.”
“Are you lying?”
“Absolutely.”
“Thanks.”
“Ang,” Will turned and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Don’t close your door tonight. In fact, don’t go in your room.”
“So, I’m sleeping on the couch now?” I grinned. “Was I that bad?”
“You were so good that I’ve decided to upgrade you to the King bed…” his eyes flashed with desire. “No clothes allowed.”
“I’ll think about it,” I said honestly, because it seemed too good to be true, and after this last week I needed to see that he meant it.
“Good.” He kissed my forehead again just before Zane returned with towels. He deposited them on one of the chairs under the balcony and turned on his heel, walking back into the house without a word.
“THIS BETTER BE fast,” I said, towel wrapped around my waist as I paced in front of Zane. Ang was showering and whatever shit was about to fall, I wanted to protect her from it all. Even if it had nothing to do with her or us, I didn’t want her worrying about anything. Not so soon.
“Wow, look at that.” Zane crossed his arms. “Give a guy a little bit of food, and suddenly he remembers all the reasons for feasting.”
“Really?” I groaned, “We’re doing this now?”
“You texted. I texted back multiple times. There was a storm, I was worried.” Zane shrugged. “And then Jay was looking for you, and he couldn’t get ahold of you.” He tossed me my phone. “I think you should check your messages, unless you’d rather hear it from me first.”
“Hear what?” A sense of dread washed over me.
“You know what?” Zane looked skeptical, “I have a better idea, give me your phone. I’m going to put it away until you get fed some more, you can come grab it before you’re needed on set, before the storm.”
“The storm already hit.” I pointed outside.
“No.” Zane sighed. “But it’s about to.”
The shower turned off.
“Look.” He licked his lips. “She’s breakable, she’s frail. If you’re not in it right now for the long term, don’t walk into that bathroom, stay the hell away from the bedroom. If you can’t walk through the hurricane and come out on the other side the same as when you went through… then I need you to promise me you’ll send her back to her room and freaking lock the door behind you.”
I leaned against the wall. “See now you’re worrying me, because you never get that tone unless things are really serious.”
“All I need to know,” Zane’s jaw ticked, “Is if you really trust her now, in this moment. If you’re in it.”
“It’s none of your damn business,” I roared.
“It is when it affects so many people,” Zane said in a low voice. “So, what is it?”
“I trust her.” I tried to have conviction behind my words, but I knew the fear was still there, it lingered like a sickness, the fear that she’d leave, that I’d mess up again, that we’d break each other.
Zane exhaled and grabbed my phone sliding it into his pocket. “Then make tonight good, because something tells me tomorrow’s going to have enough problems of its own.”
“I think I’ll take my phone now.”
“No.” Zane started walking backward toward the door. “Have a good night, Will. See you in the morning.”
I was still standing, staring at the door when Ang’s hands wrapped around my waist. “Everything okay?”
“Not according to Zane.” I sighed, hanging my head as a groan rumbled in my throat at the way her hands teased my chest. “But I suddenly don’t care.”
“You sure?” She moved around me, squeezed my neck, and lifted her lips to mine brushing a soft kiss on the bottom before taking it in her teeth and biting down. “Because I can go watch TV or something. There’s this book I’ve been—”
I scooped her up in my arms, ignoring her protests and laughter, then deposited her on my bed. She bounced up once before I dropped my towel and crawled toward her.
“No movies.” I laved each perfect breast. “No books.” I moved up to her mouth, greedily drinking her in again, cupping the soft skin of her chin with my thumb, rubbing it over and over again as I memorized the velvet softness of the way she felt beneath me. “I missed you,” I confessed with another heated kiss to her mouth.
Her hands moved down my biceps, and stayed, squeezing with each dip of my tongue, with each exploring kiss.
“So damn much.”
Tears built up behind her gaze.
One fell.
I watched.
Waited.
She held her breath.
And just as it hit her lips, I caught it, and kissed it away.
Maybe it was her breaking point.
Maybe it was mine.
But she flipped me on my back, and devoured me, her hungry kisses making me weaker than I’d ever felt in my entire existence as her mouth moved lower and lower.
“Not tonight,” I said in a guttural voice. “Tonight I need to be inside you again and again until you understand.”
“Understand what?” She stopped kissing me, her flush face and bruised lips made my heart pound, just like the way her body arched, rocked against mine with her realization.
“That it’s real.”
“No acting,” Ang agreed. “No cameras.”
“No publicity stunts.”
“No screaming fans.”
“Us,” I whispered, leaning up for another kiss. “Just us.”
“Us.” She nodded, her forehead touching mine before she angled her body over mine, her skin almost feverish to the touch as she groaned out my name and rode me.
“Shit.” I grasped her hips
and slowed her movements, only to lose complete control when she slammed my arms back against the mattress and took control.
With a grin I bucked with her, allowed her to dominate, let her control, and bruised her ass with my fingers as I held on.
Her head dipped forward, and her hair grazed my chest while I kissed her mouth. All that silk brushing over me was too much. With a groan, I flipped her onto her back, lunging into her, forcing the bed against the wall with every move I made.
“Will Sutherland.” She said my name like a prayer. “I missed you.”
I was home.
Her body tightened and pulsed around me as we both found release. “Not as much as I’ve missed you.”
I WOKE UP to Will’s mouth, his sexy sinful mouth licking me from the inside out, I thought it had been a dream, until I felt his hands on my thighs, until I felt him exploring like he was my own personal alarm clock.
Each lick was another ring that it was morning.
Lick, time to get up.
Lick, lick, let’s hit snooze.
I lay back, my body pulsed, buzzed with awareness of what his mouth was doing. I’d never allowed anyone to do what he was doing.
It was too personal.
And maybe a part of me had wanted to save it for him.
Save some small part of myself for his mouth.
“Will!” I clenched my thighs as fiery darts of delight threatened to take me over the edge. “I think that—”
“No thinking,” he said from beneath the sheets, slapping my thigh lightly with his hand, heat rushed through my body, centering on where his mouth was teasing. Pleasure built so hard and fast I couldn’t even speak.
But I did scream.
And pant.
And say a whole bunch of embarrassing things about never leaving bed ever again and shopping for a chain.
Whatever that meant.
Chains? Really?
“I forgot how good your skin felt against my face,” his sleepy voice rumbled. “How damn good you taste on my tongue.” Another kiss to my hip as he surfaced from under the white down comforter.
I sucked in a breath.
He was.
Beautiful.
Just.
I felt the tears again.
Maybe that’s how he did it, how he owned hearts all over the world, because he looked at me like I was his world.
“I don’t deserve to be looked at that way,” I said sadly. “Maybe one day, but not right now.”
“And who’s to decide what you do and don’t deserve?” He tilted his head. His hair was mussed all over the place, I wanted to drag my fingers through it over and over again, feel the golden texture slide through my hands while I pulled his head down to mine in greedy kiss after greedy kiss.
He moved to a sitting position and pulled me into his arms. I clung to him like my lifeline.
“I’m afraid,” I admitted. “I’m so afraid of walking out that door.”
“Don’t be.” He cupped the sides of my face and pressed a kiss to my nose. “It’s just us, all right? Besides, I think the only scene we’re shooting today has to do with me silently brooding over you talking to another guy. What could possibly go wrong?”
“You speak?” I teased.
He pounced, pressing me against the mattress with his heavy body and then his hands found my breasts again, his mouth slid over my ear. “We have time.”
“Time?” I laughed.
“Time.” He winked and then he was dragging me out of bed and into the shower.
We stumbled into it together, hands on each other’s bodies, kissing every free space that wasn’t covered.
“You know,” I grabbed the soap and started running it over his muscled chest, laughing softly when his eyes narrowed. “I think you’re the best agent I’ve ever had.”
“Someone’s got a sense of humor in the morning.” Will smirked, “I better be the best damn agent you’ve ever had, emphasis on the ever.”
I grinned and stood up on my tiptoes. “The best. I promise.”
“Good.” He relaxed and then pushed me toward the wall and assaulted my mouth. My body wasn’t built or ready for the way he attacked with every weapon he had in his arsenal, his words, his mouth, his tongue, he knew every weakness I had and used them against me, until I was a panting sweaty mess begging for more.
I should hate the powerlessness I felt at his touch, at the way time slowed around us as water pounded against our bodies and he slid into me again, roughly slamming my cheek against the cold tile until I gasped at the contact of the heat of him at my back and the ice of the tile against my breasts.
“Don’t stop,” I cried. “Please.”
“Never,” he rasped. “Never again.”
I crumpled into his arms and prayed that the day would end the way it started, with Will looking at me like everything was going to be okay.
Technically we were almost late but only because Will had to grab his phone from Zane.
He refused to look at it.
I didn’t ask him why.
Nor did I ask why Zane had seemed so concerned last night.
Instead, I shut the world out and focused on the cup of coffee in my hand and the warmth of Will’s kiss fading from my lips.
A swarm of reporters surrounded the beach.
More than usual.
At least ten times more.
I frowned and tried sinking back into my seat.
Will reached for my hand and squeezed. “It’s nothing you’ve never faced before, Ang, only this time we do it together.”
“You’re my agent,” A sense of dread washed over me . “People are going to talk aren’t they?”
“People can go to Hell.” He curled his lips in disgust and gave his head a shake. “Trust me, this will be old news by tomorrow.”
“Promise me that we can be shut-ins tonight?”
His eyes swept over me with such a hungry gaze I felt hot all over. “Do you think I’d want it any other way?”
“I hope not.”
“Not. It’s not.” He scrutinized me a minute longer as if looking for any weakness he needed to put armor around, as if waiting for me to break so he could figure out how to shield me from the ugly. “It’s going to be fine, all right?”
He was so authoritative now.
Wise.
Trusting.
I trusted him.
I gave him a shaky nod and opened my car door just as Will took a quick look at his cell phone and paled.
It was bad timing.
The press hounding us.
Will looking down.
Me looking lost.
He quickly flashed me a worried smile, then grabbed my hand, kissed it, and helped me wade through the crowds.
I might have covered my ears.
I might have tuned them all out.
I might have been on the verge of tears for no reason.
I wanted him to myself.
I wanted us to ourselves.
Why the hell had I taken this job?
Right. Comeback. To prove something.
And now all I wanted was to go back into the car and drive with Will, anywhere but here.
We finally made it past the barricade where reporters couldn’t linger, and into the hub of action.
Jay was rubbing his eyes with his hands, Pris looked worried, and everyone was on set, including the wives.
The minute they saw us, I knew something was very wrong.
I froze.
Stopped moving.
And then the crowd parted.
And Andrew walked toward us.
Will pulled me against him.
Andrew’s eyes narrowed between us before he made a cautious approach.
Cameras flashed from behind us, we weren’t far enough away for them not to see the reunion of the two best friends who broke up the world’s biggest boy band.
And the girl who helped them do it.
I had to lean on Will to keep from collapsing.
He was strong, immobile, pissed beyond all reason. It was a look I’d never seen him give, like he’d gladly go to prison for murder and cheerfully take a life sentence just so he could wipe Andrew off the face of the earth.
Andrew’s blue eyes skimmed over both of us. His mop of dark hair was gone, buzzed close to his head, tattoos lined his arms, and menacing was the only word that came to my mind.
If Will had turned into this respectable man.
Andrew had turned into pure wickedness.
The last time I’d seen him he’d been at a party. His solo career had taken off just about the time mine started spiraling into non-existence. I had asked him for help once, but he told me I was bad for his image.
Right, I was bad for his image.
I swallowed and fought to keep my head held high.
“I wonder.” Andrew’s smooth voice made my teeth chatter. “What glorious web of lies you’ve spouted to him to get him back.” He tapped his chin. “Nice seeing you both, oh and sorry about not letting you know about the cameo, the studio thought it would be a nice… reunion. The rest of the guys fly in today.”
He walked past.
Will glared at Jay but he was on the phone yelling at someone.
Zane made a shooting motion in Andrew’s direction just as Andrew turned back around then Zane flipped him off, which according to the level of his fame right along with Alec and Demetri meant he could do whatever the hell he wanted, my friends were A-list celebrities.
Andrew had been dying to get that letter since losing it after the band broke up. He craved it.
Fought for it.
Hated Will for still having it despite changing careers, and he’d made that clear the last time I’d seen him when he’d told me I was trash.
Will finally unfroze and gripped me by the shoulders, looking into my eyes. “You okay?”
I shook my head no.
“He wasn’t supposed to be on set until tomorrow, I didn’t even know until I checked my phone. I’m—” His eyes were wild, crazy. “Ang — say something!”
I opened my mouth, and then puked all over the sand.
“LOOK, ALL I’M saying is I know a guy.” Zane held up his hands and then grabbed his cell. “Remember, I’m part Italian.”