Page 40 of Big Boss
“I don’t understand what you think you have to be sorry about.” I pause as I feel him breathing here next to me, then lift my hand to run my fingers through the waves of his hair. It’s thick and heavy, and he’s sweaty right along his hairline.
I rub along the wetness with my thumb, soothing both of our feelings. “It was fun,” I say, and give him a small peck of a kiss, right in the middle of his frowning forehead.
“Fun?” he says, and for a moment I panic. Have I made him angry?
“That’s better than not fun, right?” My hand stills and moves from his hair to over to my own body, and my hands clench and unclench.
Then his hand is on mine, unraveling the movements until I become still.
He kisses me, and my heart aches so badly I’m afraid it’s going to shatter like a fragile piece of glass.
I’ve always heard girls talk about hooking up, but nobody warned me about how easy it would be to get hurt feelings from simply having sex.
It was dangerous to come here, to let a man like Donovan Tate into my body. I feel like a different person now, like all I want to do is stay here next to him until morning. Maybe even three mornings from now.
I want to bury my face against his skin and wrap myself around him, learning his body inch by painstaking inch. The ache inside my heart makes my eyes gloss over with tears.
“It’s going to be okay, Erica. I’ll never let you get hurt again, especially not by me.” His hands move along my skin, gentling my frazzled nerves and soothing the leftover embarrassment heating my skin, leaving little sparks of desire trailing along in the wake of his touch.
“Well, obviously it’s going to be okay. As I understand it, that was a one-time thing.” I pause, then breathe.
Tate’s hand lifts my jaw, making me face him.
“If you think what happened between us was a one-time thing then you need to reconsider.” His mouth moves against my skin, leaving a trail of goosebumps behind to linger on my neck.
“You’re mine now, and I’ll make damn sure you remember it, one way or the other.”
His fingers intertwine with mine, and when I meet his gaze he’s smiling back, and his eyes are extra soft, like a cloudy summer sky.
“We’ll see about that, Mister Bossy.”
His mouth finds mine again, seeking and demanding. “This is one issue that isn’t negotiable, Miss Ridley. Now that I’ve had you, I won’t settle for anyone else. And nobody else touches what’s mine.”
He slides his hand alongside my jaw until it’s resting in my hair again. He grips my hair and kisses me hard, until I’m rubbing my body along his again, yearning for his kiss to scorch my skin everywhere.
“Shouldn’t we turn off the lights?” I manage, my eyes closed as I rub myself against him.
“I don’t want to miss any part of this, Erica. I’ve waited too long to be in a relationship like this one. Let me see all of you the entire time, at least this first time.”
His voice and his words are making me dizzy. “There’s no rush, Tate.” I press myself against him until my breathing is heavy. I murmur his name again, next to his lips. “I never expected my first time to be like this.”
“Our first time of many, sweetheart.” I shiver at the words against my skin. “But believe me. I’m not in a rush.” And then he shows me with his mouth how very slowly he can move.
Again and again he shows me, as my voice rings out into the night.
14
Tate
I’ve gota coffee in each hand, and I’m humming along with the insipid elevator music. It’s a mixed close harmony group called Sensation, one of the various musical groups that one of my bandmates joined after the once-in-a-lifetime success of Eating Out.
The music is annoying, but even I can admit that it has a catchy chorus. I look down to find my toe tapping along with the beat, and instead of getting annoyed, I end up smiling like an idiot.
I should text Vincent and let him know. He’ll probably make fun of me, but I think he would secretly enjoy finding out that I’m into his later music. Well, maybe not the part where it ends up playing in the elevator of a downtown skyscraper, but he would like knowing that I’m thinking about him and enjoying his music.
Maybe he would even like the part where I’m happy. Because this feels happy. Happier than I’ve ever been in my entire life. Happier than I deserve.
Now all I have to do is convince Erica to give this thing with me a real chance. I can definitely understand her not wanting to be publicly linked with me, but if she’ll just give me a chance, I know I can prove to her that this could be worth it.
