Trashy (16 page)

I giggled as he rolled off me and stared up at the ceiling. He reached between us and took my hand, linking us together as the sound of the ocean filled the room and the scent of our sex lingered in our noses.

I thought I’d enjoyed sex before… but it had been nothing compared to this. Adam was the man everything else in my life would now be measured against.

Nothing else would ever stand a chance in hell.

I was left there with thoughts sneaking into my bliss. Thoughts I didn’t want, but couldn’t stop. He was the standard now,
my
standard… What if I wasn’t his?

“Can I ask you something?” I whispered. Nerves knotted my stomach, but still I had to know.

“Anything,” he replied, turning so we were face to face among the pillows.

I smiled, momentarily forgetting the question because he was just so beautiful to me. He’d probably laugh if I told him that.

When I didn’t continue speaking right away, he smiled at me softly and pulled the sheet up, tucking it around my bare skin, and then pushed a few rogue strands of hair out of my face. “I love you,” he whispered.

I closed my eyes and let those words wash over me. Craig used to tell me he loved me, and it had been thrilling. It made me feel special.

But when Adam said the words…

It made me feel whole.

And it brought me back to the question I needed to ask. “Do you see me different now that you know?”

“Know what, sweetheart?” he murmured, brushing my hair back once more.

I almost told him to forget it because the way he was looking at me was a good enough answer. Yet when the after-sex glow faded, I would still want to know.

“Now that you know all the things I let him do to me.”

“You’re afraid I think less of you,” he said.

I nodded. Of course I was. I knew the kind of stereotype that went with women in bad relationships, women who allowed men to treat them like trash. We were weak; we were insecure and scared. We didn’t have enough self-respect to get the hell out, or maybe deep down, we liked being treated like shit.

I didn’t think I could stand it if Adam thought of me that way.

“I’m in awe of you, sweetheart,” Adam said. “I see a woman who is too strong for her own good, who has the capability of loving so unconditionally that she did so at her own detriment. You loved that asshole in spite of himself. You loved him when he didn’t deserve it. Your loyalty
astounds me. The fact you stayed true even after you shouldn’t have doesn’t make you weak, honey. It makes you strong.”

“But I let him hurt me,” I whispered, tears filling my eyes. I’d never thought about it that way before. I had loved him unconditionally. It just wasn’t enough.

“You got caught up in a shitty situation. You were fucking seventeen. You didn’t know any better. By the time you did, you were in so deep it probably felt impossible to get out.” Adam reached out and stroked the side of my cheek. “But you did. You got out. And now you’re here with me.”

“Most men wouldn’t want to hear about the number an ex did on a woman they were in bed with.”

He smirked. “Sweetheart, I’m not most guys. I’m awesome.”

I giggled. “Yeah. You are.”

“And I’d be a damned hypocrite if I got mad you were in someone else’s bed before mine. I’ve been married four times. Four failed marriages. Frankly, I’m shocked you’d be here with me.”

“I guess we both have a past,” I whispered.

“We both have a future too.” He leaned forward and kissed me, a lingering caress that touched me deep inside. “I don’t give a shit about your past, Rox. It’s your future I’m after,” he murmured against my lips.

A fluttering filled me up inside, making me feel light and jittery. I never thought I’d feel this way again… I never realized the second time around would be even better than the first.

I lifted the sheet and slid beneath it, bringing my body up against his. Both of us were still lying on our sides, facing the other. I draped my arm around his side and pulled him just a little bit closer. My breasts flattened against his chest, and I purred a little with the skin-on-skin contact.

Adam palmed the back of my head and pulled me so he could suck my lower lip into his mouth. My nails dug into his back, and we began kissing hungrily. He rocked his hips toward me and his hardness poked me.

Even though we’d just made love, my body wanted him again. The feel of his stiff cock thrusting against me while his tongue delved into the depths of my mouth had fresh moisture slicking the inside of my thighs and the center of my body.

I lifted my leg and threw it up over his hip, inviting him inside.

The swollen, silky head of his penis probed at my entrance, seeking access inside my body. I was so wet he slid along my slit, unable to plunge inside.

I moaned because he felt so incredible, and I wiggled my hips, trying to help him find his way.

Adam untangled our lips and groaned. “Please tell me you’re on the pill,” he panted, his hips still thrusting against me.

“I am,” I replied, tilting my hips upward.

“I swear to God I’m clean, sweetheart,” he said as the tip of his head found my hole.

I gasped. The feeling of his skin on my skin was incredible. He was so smooth and tight. I desperately wanted him to push inside, to fill me up.

I made a little sound and rocked against him.

Adam grabbed my hip and stilled me, holding himself poised at my entrance. “Look at me, Roxie.”

My eyelids fluttered open, and I connected with the dark pools of his eyes. He was so close I could see the effort it took for him to not plunge inside me.

“Tell me it’s okay,” he rumbled.

I tightened the leg thrown over his hip and pushed myself closer. “I want you inside me, Adam. Right now. Just you. Nothing between us.”

One hard thrust brought him in deep. Both of us groaned, and I splayed my palm against his lower back and pressed him closer. I wanted him as deep as he could get.

He murmured my name, and I wiggled down, ducking my head against his chest. Adam wrapped an arm around me, holding me tight as he began to move. The fluid motion of his hips, the rocking of his cock inside me, made my brain feel fuzzy. I’d never had sex in this position before, but I loved it. I was completely against him, wrapped up in him. The steely length of his cock lay against my inner wall, and the way it slid back and forth against me built up an incredible pressure inside me.

My fingers curled inward and my nails dug into his skin. I pulled him deeper and he thrust harder.

“Adam,” I cried. My body was searching for release, craved it.

“That’s it, sweetheart,” he answered and pressed his lips against my forehead. “Come for me.”

The friction he created by all the rubbing against my inner wall created a spark, and suddenly it burst into a flame. The orgasm lit me up inside. My entire body began to tremble and I bore down on him, pumping my hips against his as ecstasy rolled through me.

I held on to him as the sensation went on and on. Adam made a sound in the back of his throat and thrust into me, holding himself there, rigid and still. I started moving, rocking my hips back and forth.

“Don’t stop,” he whispered as his body tightened.

Inside me, his head began to pulse, and he crushed me against him. I felt his hot seed pouring out, and I held on as I milked every last drop from his shaft. I loved the feeling of him leaving something inside me, of my body drinking in his essence.

I’d never felt so sated in my entire life.

“Holy fuck,” he muttered when breath returned to our bodies.

I pressed a kiss into his chest and snuggled closer. “Don’t leave me yet.”

A laugh rumbled through him. “Sweetheart, I’m not going anywhere. The feel of you around me is goddamn amazing.”

I yawned. The sleep I didn’t get the night before was catching up to me and being wrapped up in his warm embrace, feeling so relaxed, was making my eyes grow heavy.

But I didn’t want to go to sleep.

I didn’t want to miss a single minute with Adam.

“Get some sleep,
Rox,” Adam said, as if he could read my mind.

“I don’t want to,” I whined, even as I yawned again.

He chuckled. “Oh, I won’t let you sleep long,” he promised. “I’m not done with you yet.”

I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep with a smile still on my lips.

Adam

I pushed myself hard on my morning run, sprinting across the sand beside the water. The force of my step kicked up some sand on my calves, but I ignored it.

Getting out of bed to run at all had been an accomplishment because Roxie was right beside me. Even though I'd had her over and over throughout the night, when I opened my eyes and saw her hair across the pillow and her still slightly swollen lips so close, my cock jackknifed into position. Even though I wanted her again, I didn't reach for her. She was likely already sore, and I didn't want to hurt her. 

She'd been hurt enough already.
 

So here I was out on the sand, trying to run off the worst of my need and anger. And yeah, the punishing pace would only get me back to her faster.
 I knew the old injury in my knee would probably hate me later for this, but it was a price I would gladly pay.

It was a scorcher, and I wiped my brow with the back of my hand, rubbing away some of the sweat. Usually, I ran as the sun was just rising, but I was late this morning and the sun was higher in the sky. Last night had been just too fucking amazing.

Roxie was a combination of naughty and nice all tied up into one total package. I had no idea she was so innocent. Her reactions to me and my touch were so honest that I couldn't keep my hands off her. She kept reaching for me. The curiosity in her eyes for my body had me on the verge of orgasm the entire night. I wanted her touch, craved it, but I wanted to satisfy her more.

It became clear the more I touched her that her past experiences with the douche bag had not been that great. He’d been a selfish lover, taking but never reciprocating. I felt sorry she didn't know what she'd been missing, but I was fucking thrilled I was the one to show her.

Even with all the pleasure we found last night, I still couldn't forget the things she told me. I was still so angry, and it terrified me I always would be. Thank God the marks on her neck would fade. There was no way in hell I could look at them forever and not go after him.

And the need to go after that motherfucker was pretty intense.

I sent up silent thanks that I already had a restraining order slapped on his ass for the club. At least while Roxie was there I could breathe a little easier knowing she was safe.

I didn’t know what I would do if I saw him. Self-control wasn’t my best quality, and when it came to Roxie, I had a feeling I would be a loose cannon. She didn’t need that. She needed someone more stable, someone who could keep his shit together and be the rock she never had.

It made me crazy she’d been navigating life all by herself for years while trying to clean up the mess of the man who was too stupid to know what he had.

No more.

I realized that even though I told her I loved her, she never said it back. When I asked her to be mine, her eyes turned wary. But that was okay. I wasn’t going to give up on her. On us. I’d wait until she was able to say the words, and they would be even sweeter because I earned them.

My building came into view, towering above the beach farther down the sand. Heat coursed through my body and all the blood went straight into my shorts. Clearly, my intense, punishing run hadn’t been enough to dull the desire I felt for her.

I kept running. My gaze followed the line of waves crashing at the shore, and my attention was snagged by someone walking across the sand toward the water.

Her dark hair whipped behind her, tangling in the wind off the water, and she was wearing a too-large white shirt, the sleeves hanging well past her hands.

Roxie
.

She was wearing my shirt.

Good God, this woman had a habit of wearing my shit and making it look amazing. Her long, tan legs stretched down to the sand, her feet bare. She was probably naked beneath my button-up.

I picked up the pace.

My eyes never wavered from her as I ran, and I watched as the water rushed up the shore at her feet and she squealed and dashed backward.

I am going to love her ‘til the day I die.

She was it for me.

The end.

The beginning.

My everything.

I smiled because I knew she must have found my note.

As if she sensed me, Roxie turned and glanced in my direction. Her body changed when she recognized it was me.

A smile broke out over her face and she started jogging toward me. The tails of my dress shirt trailed behind her and the front plastered against her body.

I slowed my pace when I was almost to her, and she laughed, launching herself at me.

I caught her with ease, and her legs wrapped around my waist.

“I got your note,” she said with a grin.

I moved in to kiss her. She squealed. “You’re all sweaty!”

“Didn’t stop you from leaping into my arms,” I drawled.

“You need a shower,” she said, a twinkle in her eyes.

Yeah, that got me rock hard. Just the thought of her in the shower with water running down her naked body…

I dropped onto the sand, pinning her beneath me and attacking her lips with mine. She laughed, but it quickly turned into a moan, and her arms slid around my neck to match my kiss with one of her own. I made sure I rubbed my sweaty self all over her front and smooshed her in the sand so her hair got full of it.

“Hey!” she yelled between kisses. “You’re making me a mess!”

I pulled back to grin down at her. “Now you need a shower too.”

“Good thing I’m already half naked,” she purred.

My hand slid up the outside of her leg and my fingers skimmed against the skin where her panties should have been. I felt my eyes grow wide.

“Roxie!” I growled and looked around for prying eyes. “I’m trying real hard not be possessive of you, sweetheart, but you’re making it fucking impossible.”

“Being possessed by you doesn’t seem so bad,” she said softly.

“How about being loved by me instead?” I asked, kissing the tip of her nose.

“That sounds even better.”

I jumped to my feet and grinned at the sexy mess she was in the sand. She pushed up onto her elbows and grimaced. On impulse, I swept her up in my arms and starting walking toward the stairs that led to my building, her laugh floating behind us the entire way.