“I hope not.” He bends down and kisses me, his tongue more confident than the first time we kissed last night. As though he’s already used to kissing me in less than twenty-four hours. Just when I think he’s going to release my hands, he closes the kiss, placing one last one on the tip of my nose.
“I need my hands,” I say.
He laughs and shakes his head. “You don’t.”
He thrusts harder and my back arches off the bed. He takes the opportunity to close his mouth over my nipple and suck on my breast. I can’t argue with that.
His mouth pops off and he increases his tempo in and out of me. I wiggle my wrists, but he doesn’t remove his restraint and there’s something about not being able to touch him, about being held down, that I’m enjoying way too much. His lips fall over my bare skin, teasing, nibbling, and sucking as he grinds in and out of me. I wrap my legs around his waist, the only control I have, and tighten my thighs around his middle. It makes the friction that much better.
A ripple of an orgasm stirs in my belly, and I chase the high swirling around me. “Harder,” I say, panting, content to struggle with my wrists locked on the bed.
For a moment, I’m lost in his love-filled eyes. As scared as I am about this going south, there’s no one else I’d rather be with. His eyes catch mine, and whatever he sees causes him to release my wrists. His hands land on my face and he kisses me as though it’s our first time, never breaking pace.
Somewhere between his tongue sliding into the depths of my mouth and my hands being able to explore his body, he carries me to the edge of the cliff. In the last twelve hours, I’ve seen stars, he’s made me come so hard and so fast. I’ve been dizzy with lust, needy to have another one. But this time, a sense of peace falls over my body. And as he stills inside me, I hold his body to mine, taking the weight of the love and safety only he can give me.
Propping up on his elbows, he stares at me. “Now that is a good morning.”
He kisses my lips, withdraws out of me, and heads to the bathroom. The messy side of not using a condom kind of sucks, but the gentleman he is, he returns with a washcloth for me.
I clean up then get up from the bed and head into the bathroom. “If we don’t want to have our own little one, I’d better get home to take my pill.”
He follows and turns on the water to the shower. “How about I make some dresser space for you here?”
I stare at him through my reflection in the mirror. “Isn’t that moving fast?”
“I see it more like moving slow.”
He comes up behind me and kisses my neck. That sense of belonging fills my chest again and radiates outward. I’m not sure about taking over dresser space though.
I circle around in his arms. “Let’s talk about it after at least a week.” I giggle and kiss his cheek. “I’m starving. While you shower, I’m going to make us something.”
He walks into his glass-doored shower. “Did you forget you don’t cook? Plus, I need groceries. Want to go grocery shopping?”
“I’m not really sure I want to be in public after last night? I’m the other woman.” I put some toothpaste on my finger and run it over my teeth and tongue, then spit in the sink and cup my hand for some water.
“I think Brigette was always the other woman according to Lake Starlight residents.”
“Speaking of, did you check online?”
“Buzz Wheel?” he asks as I watch soap travel down the contours of his body. There’re no traces of the boy I grew up with—he’s all man now. “No. I don’t care what it has to say.”
“I wonder if it went up last night or if it will be up today.” I chew on my nails.
This isn’t something I want in the gossip blog. Of course the Bailey who breaks up a wedding is me. Why should this situation be any different than the rest of my life? It’s always been one of these things is not like the other.
“It doesn’t matter what it says. It changes nothing and besides, someone else will be the story tomorrow.”
“How can you be so casual about this? Aren’t you worried? I match people for a living and now I stole the groom of a client I matched. It’s hardly an endorsement.” I sit up on the counter, my stomach not rumbling with hunger anymore.
The water turns off and Colton grabs a towel from a hook on the wall. One hook, one towel. For some reason, that makes my mind shift into a completely different direction. Which isn’t really an anomaly for me.
“Was Brigette going to move in here?”
He dries himself, running the towel over his hair, then wraps it around his waist. “Okay, take a breath.” He cages me to the counter like moments ago, before he smelled like fresh rainfall. “You’re overthinking this. Everyone always assumed we’d be together. They’re going to be happy. And Brigette understands.”
“Because she was marrying you for a green card, but the rest of Lake Starlight doesn’t know that. They’ll probably look at me like I’m a whore.”
He chuckles. “They will not. Lake Starlight loves their matchmaker and they aren’t going to nail you to the cross or make you wear a scarlet letter.” He disappears into his room and returns with his phone. He looks at me as I put the T-shirt he gave me last night over my head. “Want me to read it or you want to read it yourself?”
I snatch the phone from him and sit on the bed, inhaling then exhaling a large breath.
Lake Starlight Buzz Wheel
For those not in attendance at the wedding of Colton Stone last night, you might be surprised to be waking up to the news that the wedding never happened. Guests, including the entire Bailey clan, watched the bride walk down the aisle, but before vows were exchanged, the bride was walking back up the aisle, disappearing into the Cozy Cottage B&B. Colton followed but told the guests to stick around for the meal. A half hour later, Colton entered the tent only to have his first dance with—Juno Bailey. Rumors are they left the wedding together shortly after. Yes, ladies and gentlemen of Lake Starlight, the matchmaker finally succumbed to her love for Colton Stone. It’s nice to see love won out last night in Lake Starlight.
Some of you might be wondering about Brigette… she was seen leaving the Cozy Cottage B&B with Rhys from Smokin’ Guns Tattoo Parlor, who escorted her to his vehicle. This had a lot of guests at the wedding wondering what exactly was the cause of the canceled wedding?
I close out his phone and he knocks his shoulder to mine. “Not so bad, huh?”
I shake my head. There’s no reason I should have worried they were going to crucify me. Maybe it’s my own guilt. “It shouldn’t ease my mind that she left with Rhys, but it does.”
“You need to learn that it’s okay for you to be happy.”
I kiss his cheek. “I just feel like me getting what I want has left someone else to be banished from the country.”
He chuckles. “Oh, Juno, she’s fine. Obviously, she wanted to be with Rhys.”
“I thought maybe her and Jason, but Rhys surprises me.”
He takes off his towel as though it’s the most natural thing in the world and puts on a pair of track shorts and a T-shirt before tossing me a pair of shorts that I’ll have to roll the waistband down to keep up. “Jason isn’t Brigette’s type. She wants someone who wants to travel and see the world. She wants to stay in America, but she wants the freedom to travel too. A doctor would never be able to give her that, but I think a guy like Rhys, someone who picked up and moved here not knowing a soul, might be the one for her. Jason is more like me—likely to buy a house large enough to fit a family before he’s even found a wife.” He takes my hand and leads me out of the room. “Now come on, let’s grab some breakfast and go get you some clothes.”