Until now.
However, it wasn’t regret, or shame, or disgrace tapping on her subconscious, it was some strange version of lonesomeness wrapped up in a package of longing. Typically, she relished in the solitude of being alone, but Ember wanted to wake up to him lying beside her.
She plodded back to bed and fell facedown onto the mattress, drawing in a deep cleansing breath. The sunny scent of him still lingered in her bedsheets.
Shoving a hand into her squishy pillow, she covered the back of her head with it, burying her run-on rant into the bedding. The self-admonishment and reprimand went on and on, listing everything she’d probably never forgive herself for, no matter how good it felt. “I can’t believe he left. Jerk. Damn he was amazing. We were amazing. I’m never going to be able to face him.”
She jolted feeling the mattress compress beside her hip.
Instant mortification sent chills skittering down her spine.
Ember laid there, naked, panting into the crumpled sheets.
“I’m back to being a jerk already?” His tone, soft and quiet, bordered on amused. Nash removed the pillow from the back of her head, but she refused to move. “Ember, sweetheart, roll over.”
She shook her head but twisted her neck to breathe a little better. Slipping the tangles of messy morning hair from the side of her face, he brushed a sweet kiss to her shoulder.
Peeking at him with one eye, Ember didn’t think it was humanly possible for him to look more attractive than the night before, but the scruff on his face and sunlight brightening the irises of his baby blues sent her heart into a tailspin.
“Look at me.”
“I am looking at you.”
“You thought I cut out early?”
Her shoulder lifted in the tiniest of shrugs.
“I take it, that upset you?”
After a few beats, she nodded.
“Good.”
The single word sparked a host of exasperations. Nose wrinkled, she wrenched her head to the side, twisting her body beneath him.
A smile, audacious and burning with arrogance, crossed his lips. “After last night, I would’ve been pissed too if I’d woke up to find my bed empty.”
The feelings of rejection that had filled her mind vanished, lost to his gorgeous grin. Ember didn’t resist when he eased her onto her back, she merely drew her hands over his t-shirt clad shoulders.
“Now—” Nash growled playfully pressing a trail of quick kisses and bites up her throat. “Bee made coffee, but she said you prefer chamomile t—”
“Shit! You talked to Bee?” Layers of colors enhanced her already pink cheeks.
“I’ve known Bee since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. I was just glad I got dressed before I walked into the kitchen. It’s been quite a few years since she’s seen me naked. I’m sure one of us would’ve been embarrassed…probably me.”
As he spoke, all she could think of was the weight of his body and how amazing it felt bearing down on her. A slow rolling simmer began to churn inside.
“Really?” Dropping her hands to his hips, her knuckles skimmed along the tense muscles of his lower abdomen, fingertips dipping behind his belt buckle. “I’m sure there’s a story in there somewhere.”
“She’s stitched me up once or twice. I’ve got a meeting this morning—” His words trailed off, burying a soft grunt into her hair when she grabbed hold of his cock, stroking, coaxing, tempting.
Ember shoved at his shoulder until his back sank into the bed. Climbing over him, she settled between his thighs, resting her bottom atop her crossed ankles. She unbuckled and unzipped, releasing his taut erection from its denim confines. The man was so big, she thought she might not fit all of him in her mouth, but she was going to give it her best effort.
Sunshine streamed across the bed, dramatically revealing every bit of his masculine beauty in the morning light.
Ember gazed at him with startling intensity.
Nash was the most exquisite thing she’d ever seen. It wasn’t merely the size of his cock, it was everything. The texture and color of his tan skin, the perfect amount of dark silky hair covering his well-defined torso, brick after brick of his drum-tight abs, the veins running down the length of his perfectly built arms.
The abundance of ruggedness he possessed was dizzying.
Mouthwatering.
Hair cascading over one shoulder, she bent over him, flicking her tongue on the ridge of his engorged head. “So, you have a meeting…go on.”
“Hell, I don’t remember what I was saaaying.” A deep groan drifted from his open mouth. “What day is it? Fuck, what month is it?”
Satisfaction perked the corners of her lips.
She sat upright and stretched across his chest, taking a drink of hot tea.
“Is this something I’m supposed to fast track or can you be late?” she asked, right before taking him into the searing heat of her mouth.
“Christ Almighty, your mouth—” A rough guttural moan escaped him. “So hot…so fucking good.”
Relinquishing her stare to the project at hand, Ember gripped the base of him with one hand while the other roamed over his abs and chest. He watched with keen interest as she took him deeper.
Beneath the points of her elbows, his heavily muscled thighs turned to stone under the assault of her mouth. Nash delved into her hair, fingers spread wide, clasping tightly around her skull. His grip, assertive yet not forceful, applied the perfect amount of pressure turning her heartbeat into a ramshackle rhythm of chaos.
The thickness of him swelled. He offered a raspy warning of sorts, “I can’t hold onto this, sweetheart. Turn around. Come sit on my face, so I can take care of you.”
Pausing, she murmured around the rigidness, “I’m not a fan of the sixty-nine. I want to taste you.”
She added a sultry please for good measure, but her words of request sent him flying. Blue eyes glazing over, his body strained from his toes to the sinewy muscles cording near his neck. Ember took him deeper into the suction of her mouth until long, throaty, release-filled groans of appreciation floated above her head in a cloud of boisterous compliments.
Panting, she sat upright explaining, “I’m not good at multitasking. I can’t do those two particular things at once, so I guess you could say I’m a thirty-four and a half.”
On a husky grunt, he flipped their positions, pinning her to the bed. “Whatever you are, I’m totally into it.”
“Is that sooooo?” Her question spilled into a moan as his wickedly talented fingers pushed into the slick furled flesh.
Nash seemed to know exactly what she needed, his thrusts more intent and potent than the night before. Her hips caught in a pleasure-arch, grinding against his hand, searching and pleading for more.
The silence of the room filled with her breathy cries of luxurious bliss. He looked at her, eyes glassed over, wonderment mixed with determination, almost as if he couldn’t believe she was real. Sensations gathered force, her core tightening around the pleasant invasion. She came in a rush of tremors, her shoulders curling inward with each intense contraction.
Nash dropped to an elbow, propping his head in the palm of his hand. Satisfaction softened his rugged features. He lifted his fingers to his mouth, eyes drifting behind heavy lids, indulging in her sweet essence. Attempting to share, he brushed the tips of his fingers to her lips, but she twisted her neck, giggling.