“I’m sneaking out, remember? Come let me in.”
The playful tone of his voice tugs a smile to my lips.
“Go to the front.” Before he can answer, I shut and lock the window, shivering and rubbing my hands up and down my bare arms that are now covered in gooseflesh. I throw on the first thing I find, a tank top and boy shorts I had tossed over my chair, then fly down the stairs only to realize what I must look like. And I haven’t brushed my teeth.
Dammit.
“Are you there?” I whisper-shout through the door.
More laughter, and it makes my aching heart sing. “I’m here.”
“Good. I’m unlocking this door, but you have to give me a minute or two before you come upstairs.”
“Is this some sort of kinky hide-and-seek game you’re trying to play, or are you being self-conscious? Because I already saw you, and I can tell you you’re fucking beautiful.”
“I showered but didn’t brush my hair or teeth.”
“Oh, Elle. I don’t care about any of that. You’re perfect.”
I snort. “Did you brush your teeth?”
He’s silent for a beat. “I might have.”
“See? I need a minute.”
I unlock the door, then sprint for my life back up my stairs, more winded than I should be. I don’t think walking four miles a day back and forth to work is keeping me in the shape I’m used to. I hear the front door shut with a resounding click of the lock flicking into place and go for my toothbrush first. That is until I see my hair.
Holy rat’s nest, Batman, we’re in trouble.
With one hand on my toothbrush and the other on my hairbrush, I attack both with clumsy precision.
“Elle?” Landon’s impish lilt rings out through my bedroom, and I nearly choke myself on my toothbrush.
“Just a minute,” I murmur around the suds of toothpaste before spitting into the sink and rinsing my mouth out. Then I finish up with my hair and give myself a quick once-over.
“You know we don’t have to play this game with each other, right? The one where we primp and preen and pretend we’re not ourselves.”
He has a point, but bad breath isn’t something I’d like to risk right now.
Working past the sudden swarming hive of nerves in my stomach, I fling the door open and find Landon right on the other side, waiting for me, his hands gripping either side of the frame. Over the past ten days, I’ve done some incredibly naughty and dirty things with this man in this very room, and yet suddenly having him in my bedroom tonight, staring at me like that, I feel like a shy virgin. Unsteady and unsure of how to proceed.
I’m so very lost and out of sorts, but his eyes tell me I don’t need to be. They tell me I’m everything he’s been searching for and with that, I step out of the bathroom and remove my tank top, dropping it to the floor.
His breath comes out in a rush as he stares unabashedly at my breasts before trickling down my stomach. My hands follow his gaze, catching on my boy shorts and lowering them before kicking them away, baring me completely to him once more. A grunt hits his lips as he licks them, worshipping me without touching me.
“God, Elle.” It’s all he’s got before he steps forward, and his lips fall on mine, his hands to my hips where his fingers caress the dips and slopes of my skin.
I’m desperate for him—I’m always desperate for him—but I’m also done playing games or being uncertain. I step back, my hand on his chest, holding him at bay.
“I don’t want to be this high school Lifetime movie steamy HBO Max fantasy book drama Netflix original show anymore. You need to want me, Landon. Me. Not the sex. Not my pussy or even my tits. Me. Because I have so much family drama, my life has turned into a Nicholas Sparks kinda bullshit.”
He blinks at me more times than I can count. “You lost me a bit.”
“I’m not a fuck toy. I’m not a screw and toss.”
His hand runs through my hair as he stares into my eyes. His other hand comes up, cupping my cheek. “Do you know why I was so harsh with you after that first night we met?”
“Because you’re a grumpy bastard?”
He smirks. “That was part of it. But I knew the second I saw you in that bar that night that there was something about you I couldn’t resist. I was afraid of your power to change my life. To change me. And you did, Elle. You changed me and now that I know what being with you feels like, I’m never going back to being that guy again.”
My heart flutters in my chest.
“I want you with a ferocity I never knew was possible. My heart hadn’t beat in nine years until some pretty girl in a bar looked at me with these hazel eyes that tore straight through me, reminding me I’m not the heartless man I believed I was. You’re the air in my lungs and the smile on my lips. You’re my missing piece.”
His forehead meets mine, our noses pressed before he dips and kisses me again, this time with such aching tenderness and patience and devotion my toes curl and my hands clutch his shoulders for support. His tongue sweeps in, tasting me, exploring my mouth, driving whimpers and sighs from the depths of my soul. He nips at my bottom lip only to treat the top one to the same divine torture that has my heart racing and my body growing warmer.
This is no ordinary, urgent kiss. It’s not an I need inside of you this second or I’ll die kiss.
It’s how lovers kiss.
And it manages to sweep me off my feet. Literally as Landon lifts me into his arms and carries me over to the bed, setting me down and climbing on top of me. I clutch the hem of his sweater, attempting to tear it off, but it gets stuck on his muscled torso, and he’s forced to break our kiss to reach behind his head and remove it for me.
Why is that so sexy? That move that guys do?
I ask him, and his only response is to chuckle at me, but that smile… His smile makes my chest clench with wonder. With hope and possibility. Impatient hands fumble with his belt, uncoordinated as I undo the metal buckle, then the button of his jeans and zipper all the while his mouth explores my neck with hot, wet kisses.
Reaching down, he wrenches his belt free from his pants with a whoosh that snaps through the air, but he doesn’t remove his pants the way I need him to.
“Landon,” I whine, growing impatient, tugging on them like a child after a denied toy.
His lips layer with mine, his body held up by his hands as he stares straight into my eyes. “Do you trust me, Ellery Wilde?”
“Yes,” I answer honestly. I don’t have many I trust right now, but I do trust him.
His tongue darts out, licking the seam of my lips, and I lean up, attempting to deepen the connection when he pulls back, creating distance. The hand still holding the belt comes up and suddenly I feel the cool, smooth texture of leather gliding up my stomach, between my breasts, along my neck, and across my cheek.
“How much?”
My breath audibly catches.
“Enough for you to allow me to tie you up?”
I swallow thickly and nod, still staring into his green eyes that are dark, his pupils totally blown with lust, yet he’s still so in control. The bulge pressing into my lower half, unfortunately stuck behind his jeans, grows harder, igniting an insatiable craving to shoot through me. My empty core tightens, impossibly wet.