Page 25 of Play to Win
This kiss was pure heat. Like molten lava pouring slowly into her, each stroke of his tongue ramped up the temperature in the room. Her hands went around his neck, flattened on the back of his head and held him there. He sucked her tongue and she gasped at the blatant eroticism of the act. She pressed her aching breasts against his chest and moaned in a way that she hoped translated her need for more.
With one arm tightly around her waist, the other at her back, Ethan eased Portia off the bar top. He turned them slightly and just when Portia thought he was going to sit her on the stool again, he moved her only until the tip of his cock pressed firmly against her opening. She’d wrapped her legs around his waist, locking her ankles in place, as he pressed into her. She was tight and he was thick. The pleasure pain sensation spiraled through her as he pushed deeper inside, until their bodies were locked together.
He tore his mouth away from hers at that moment and groaned as he rested his forehead on hers. Portia closed her eyes, letting the feel of his thickness throbbing inside her resonate. She was just accepting that Ethan Henley was buried to the hilt inside of her when he began to move. Driving into her hard and fast, he pumped fiercely. She dug her low-cut nails into his shoulders through his shirt. She arched her back and let her head fall back as wave after wave of glorious pleasure overtook her.
And minutes later, when she came this time, Ethan was right there with her. His thrusts came slower as he slammed into her those final times before a gut-wrenching moan ripped from his throat. She was in her own hazy vortex of pleasure, but she held on tightly to Ethan and to this moment. She opened her eyes in time to see his face contorted with a mixture of glorious relief and a sense of wonder that she believed mimicked her own. He stumbled back, sitting on a bar stool and still holding her close. Their bodies remained connected, her legs still around his waist, his dick still inside of her as Ethan rested his head on her chest and Portia held him there. She closed her eyes and wished, as she had so many times before, that this was real. That it was forever. That her dreams had finally come true.
* * *
Ethan closed the door to his truck and circled around to the sidewalk where Portia was already standing. Suddenly she looked young and vulnerable again, like when they were in school. A small purse sat at her hip, and the black strap crossing over her chest was darker against the short light purple dress she wore. Her shoes were flat and she’d pulled her curly mass of hair back into a ponytail while she was in her car. It had been out and wild as he’d held her in his arms, pumping into her with every bit of desire that had been swirling inside of him.
Coming to a stop in front of her, Ethan couldn’t help but think of what they’d just done at the bar. Hell, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it since she’d eased off his lap and hurried to the bathroom. Minutes later they’d both come out of separate bathrooms together and stood in the small hallway staring oddly at each other. He hadn’t known exactly what to say to her, since sex at the bar had been the farthest thing from his mind tonight. Yet it happened, and he wasn’t a bit sorry about that.
“Thanks for following me home,” she said after clearing her throat.
“It’s late,” he told her. “I would’ve preferred to drive you myself, but as long as I can make sure you’re safe, I’m cool with it.”
She nodded and silence ensued once more.
It shouldn’t be this weird. Ethan had been with plenty of women before and a good number of them had been one-night stands. There’d never been this type of uncomfortable silence. Probably because he’d always been sure to set the ground rules before any action could take place. He hadn’t been able to do that with Portia and wondered if now was too late.
“I’m leaving Monday night,” she said abruptly. “Rod says the work will be complete by then and my book tour continues on Tuesday.”
“Where does the tour continue?” Ethan asked because he didn’t know how else to respond. He’d known that she wasn’t in Providence to stay, and up until this moment that had been fine by him. Now, he wasn’t sure how to react.
He should‘ve felt relieved. There was no need to have a conversation about no strings, just sex, if she was leaving in a couple of days. But that’s not what he felt at all.
“New York,” she answered. “Then Boston before I head back to the West Coast. It’s a seven-week tour which will end in Portland and then I’ll head back home to Seattle.”
“You live in Seattle?”
“Yes.”
He frowned. “I didn’t know that.”
“I know,” she said with a nod.
It was almost four o’clock in the morning and they were standing on the sidewalk in front of the brightest colored house on the block sharing small talk.
“You should get inside. It’s pretty late.”
“Yes, it is.” She took a big enough breath that he could see her shoulders rise and fall with the exhale. “Thanks again…for everything.”
Ethan shook his head. “Stop thanking me,” he said. It was making him feel very uncomfortable.
She’d thanked him when his cheek was pressed against her chest and he’d been trying to catch his breath after that whirlwind orgasm. The words had been quiet and he presumed she thought he hadn’t heard them because seconds later she’d moved off his lap. But he’d heard, and the words made him feel like they’d just completed a sex-for-hire transaction. Now she was thanking him for seeing her home, as if she didn’t expect him to have that much decency, and it was irritating the hell out of him.
He stepped closer and took her hand, staring down at it for a few seconds before moving up the walkway. She followed without a word, coming up onto the porch. If this were the end of a real date—and not so late at night—this may have been the time for the goodnight kiss. She would go into the house and he would get into his truck and head home. Maybe there would be a call the next day to schedule another date, or maybe not. There probably would be another date because Ethan felt like he definitely wanted to see Portia again.
“Get home safely,” she said as she pulled her hand from his and opened the screen door.
The handle was fixed now, and she quickly found her key and opened the front door. She was stepping inside the house by the time Ethan found his next words.
“See you later,” he told her.
Her response was a curt nod and a small smile before she ducked inside and closed the door behind her. Ethan cursed all the way down the steps and the walkway to his truck at his stupidity.See you later. Who even said that anymore? And what the hell did it mean? Was he going to call her tomorrow and ask her out on another—well, a real date? Or would he just pop over here again with some other excuse to see her?
He slammed the door upon getting into his truck, started the engine and pulled off knowing there was a high probability that he wouldn’t do any of those things. And there was no need in feeling guilty if tonight had been their one-night stand, because Portia wasn’t here to stay. It was working out perfectly.
Even though he lay in his bed twenty minutes later feeling the same longing to hear her voice and to touch her as he had last night and the night before.
