Trick (10 page)

“Oh, sweetheart, you’re stuck here for a while,” I whisper, kissing her neck, her ears, along her jaw. “After that dance and the way you sucked my dick, I’m feeling like I’m in your debt. And you know I hate owing anyone anything. Call it my stupid pride, but I need to pay you back.” I slide my hand down between her legs and plunge my fingers in where she’s already so wet, my hand is soaked. “So damn wet. And tight as hell. You don’t get how much you torture
me, kitten. I thought we’d have a quick roll, and I’d get you out of my system. But your pussy? Your mouth? They’re the only things my dick wants.”

“Gunner,” she moans. “All I want is your dick. Please, please. Can you give it to me?” She squirms, her arms stretched, her back arched, her hips tight against my hand.

“Not yet.” I slide my thumb along her slick folds, working my way up to her clit. When it circles that little bead, her moans get louder, sharper. “Scream for me, baby. Let it out. I know you like to be loud. We’ve had to be quiet before, but you can be as loud as you want now.” I move my thumb faster and her voice tears from her throat, cracking and shaking.

“Gunner! Fuck! I’m coming!” she screams.

Best damn sound I’ve ever heard.

Her body shakes and jerks against me, and I pull my fingers out, licking the taste of her off them.

“Gunner,” she begs. “Let me feel you. I want my hands on you.”

I’m about to tell her ‘no,’ just so I can selfishly enjoy her the way I like it: with me calling every shot.

But there’s a point where the fun of the chase is eclipsed by a need I never imagined I’d feel again. I realize that even though I love the teasing and twisting when we fuck, what I really I want is to hold this girl in my arms and be held by her. To open up and be loved the way I haven’t been in three long years.

I pull the drawer open and slide out the key. “Hold tight,” I say, kissing her slowly, deeply, as I undo the lock.

Harlow is so busy rubbing her sweet little tongue around the inside of my mouth, she doesn’t notice she’s free of the cuffs.

Once she does, she grabs me like it’s been years since she had a chance to.

She’s like a woman starved, pumping her hips, running her hands up and down my body, licking and nipping at my skin like a greedy little thing. I love it, but I don’t want this to be the only way she expects it to be with me.

“Slow down, baby,” I say. I hold her face in my hands, and she tilts her head like she’s confused.

“You wanna stop?” Her voice quivers.

“I never wanna stop. I just want this...I want you...nice and slow,” I say, rolling her over and kissing her neck as the words fall from my mouth.

“Slow?”

“All night slow.” I kiss down her neck, along her shoulders, move my hand between her legs, and work my fingers along her clit and into her tight little pussy.

“All n-n-n-night?” she stutters. “With me?”

I pull back and look at her.

“Who the hell else would I be with?”

Her eyes hold so many damn questions that I don’t have answers for. That there are no answers for.

“Hey.” I cup her face with my hand. “I know I may have been a dick when you first showed up at the bar. You gotta understand, I meant it when I told you I was no good for you and to stay away. Anything I could think to say that would push you toward a better life, I said it. It’s not like I’m proud of that, but I did what I had to do.”

“So when you said this was just a fuck?” she asks.

I hate the way she says the word ‘fuck.’ Like it’s something low and cheap she was willing to take because that’s all I offered her.

“C’mon, baby. You can’t see through my bullshit by now?” I lower my mouth over hers and kiss her hard. “Damn, Harlow. You gotta know how much I love you.”

The words are out, and there’s no going back now.

CHAPTER 7

HARLOW

“You...love me?”

I wonder if I need to get my ears checked. Did Gunner Hunt just tell me he loved me?

Gunner Hunt, the bad boy who made me repeat how all this was just two people who couldn’t deny how badly they wanted to rip each other’s clothes off...loved me?

“I never stopped loving you, you damn fool. I told you why I had to leave you, and those reasons still hold. If I had it my way, you’d be living the life you deserve, and that doesn’t include me. But I can’t keep the hell away from you. And I’ll always love you. Always.”

“Gunner, I love you,” I gasp, desperate for him to know, to feel how much I mean it.

I kiss him with everything in me. I hold him tight in my arms, so tight I can feel the crash of his heart in his chest. I turn to the bedside table and tear off a condom. I reach my hand down, grab his dick, and roll the condom on, opening my legs wide so I can feel him press me open.

“I want you inside of me,” I moan. He presses his lips to mine and slides into me with one long, hard press of his hips.

I arch into him, loving the tight press of his dick deep inside me. He pulls back out so slowly, it’s driving me crazy. Part of me wants to grab his hips and do this fast and hard, because I want him so badly.

But I love that he wants it slow. Like he thinks we should savor it. So I let him keep a steady rhythm and grab onto his wide shoulders for support.

“Damn, it’s hard taking things slow when your pussy is so tight.” His voice sends shivers up and down my spine. “You like it, baby? You like my dick in you?”

I spread my legs wider, letting him get a little closer. He presses his body up with his arms, and I look down to where his dick is sliding in and out, shining wet from me.

“Holy hell, baby. It’s gonna take everything I have not to come. I feel like that pussy gets wetter with every stroke of my dick.”

“Gunner?”

He looks down at me, his green eyes narrowed, breathing heavy out of his nostrils.

“What do you need, baby?” he chokes out.

“I’m on the pill.” I stop his hips with my hands and push back until he’s out of me. I hate the empty feeling immediately. I put my fingers at the top of the condom. “I don’t want to do this with anything between us. I’m clean. I got tested when they put me on it.”

I can’t read the look in his eyes. “And how do you know I’m clean? Why are you willing to take that chance with me?”

I blink. Stupid that I didn’t think about it. It’s not that the sex is bad at all. It’s just that I want...him. All of him. Without even the tiniest thing between our bodies.

“Do you have something?” I ask, cursing the way my voice trembles.

“No.” He clenches his teeth so hard, I can see his jaw set. “I never fuck without a condom. Ever. And I’ve had regular screenings.”

I feel embarrassed for asking now. I guess I thought it would be intimate or sexy, but now I feel childish.

“Forget I asked,” I whisper.

He nods. “I get that you’re worried. I’m no saint, Harlow. Never pretended to be.”

“It’s not that,” I rush to explain. “I trust you, Gunner. I just...um, it seemed like...I just thought you didn’t like the idea.”

A smile twists on his perfect mouth. “So, you thought I didn’t like the idea of riding you bareback? Sweetheart, do you even know me?”

He looks down pointedly. I start to pull the condom off. “Are you sure?”

He closes those green eyes.

“I can’t promise I’ll last long. But I can tell you this. If I die the minute this is over, I’ll die the happiest man that’s ever lived.”

I giggle as I pull the condom away. “Don’t die. Especially if you don’t last long. You promised me this would last all night lon—”

My word gets cut off because he slides in, hot and huge.

“Holy fuck!” He blows a long breath out of his mouth and shakes his head. “You’re gonna be the death of me, Harlow.”

His mouth finds mine and his tongue forces its way in, like he wants a taste of something he’s been hungering for. I put my fingers in his dark hair and pull his mouth closer, licking back. His hands ride up to squeeze my breasts, his fingers pinching and pulling on the nipples until I feel that familiar flush that starts on my cheeks and neck and works down over my breasts, my stomach, and to my center.

I pull my legs up and hook them around his hips, digging my heels into the small of his back so he can drive in harder. Being this close puts the perfect pressure on my clit, over and over.

And I then I come undone.

“Gunner! Gunner! I’m coming!”

He groans hard. “Damn! So damn wet,” he gasps as he shudders hard, pressing deep into me and kissing me. He pulls his mouth back and twists it into a grin. “Thank god, baby. I didn’t think I was gonna make it.”

He wraps his arms around me, and I trace a finger down his biceps and forearms, to the place where my name is tattooed on him. I snuggle against his chest and enjoy the quiet of the room.

But I can’t relax.

I don’t want to bring up anything that will shatter the moment, but I feel like I have to know what he’s thinking. And the way he just opened up and told me how he’s always loved me makes me braver than I’ve been before.

“Gunner?”

“Mmm?” He makes a sleepy noise. “Sleep a little, Harlow. Because you’ll need your strength to make it through the rest of the night. And maybe tomorrow. Cause I don’t know if you’re gonna have the energy to get out of bed when I’m done with you.”

“What does this all mean?” I whisper.

“What?”

“You and me. And...this.”

There’s no sound but the total quiet of the room for a few long seconds.

“I don’t know what it means,” he finally answers. “But I know that things can’t go back to the way they were before. No matter how bad I might want that to happen. But I can’t think now about where things are going. Sleep, Harlow.”

His last words are a command, bit out and meant to be followed.

I close my eyes and pull his arms tighter around my body. I don’t ask any more questions because I realize I may not love the answers I get. And all I really need to know right now is that Gunner wants me, that he loves me, and that things have to change.

I just hope that change is for the better.

***

“What. The. Fuck?” Daisy says, clipping her words and raising one dark eyebrow. Her expression basically screams annoyance.

“I know!” I say, running up to the table of the outdoor cafe and tossing my pricey Dooney & Bourke bag onto the ground, not caring if its soft leather gets scuffed.

“Where did you go!?” she asks. “Have you talked to your dad? He’s going to kill you Harlow. Seriously—maim, murder. You’re a goner.”

I wince. “It was that bad, huh?”

“Harlow! You went in to get my drink and never came back! What did you think would happen? Where were you? Or do I even need to ask?”

I cock my head to the side and give a coy smile. “I was with Gunner.”

“Obviously,” Daisy says, rolling her eyes and throwing up her hands.

“What’s so wrong with that?”

“Nothing. Except you didn’t even say good-bye. Do you know how much covering I had to do for you? Do you have any idea how thirsty I was?” She lays a hand on her neck dramatically.

“What’d you tell everyone?” I start to twist my hands, but I stop myself. That is a little girl’s habit, and I’m a grown woman!

Daisy tosses her long hair over her shoulder. “I said that you texted me that you got a call from a friend that was stuck somewhere and needed a ride home. That you had to rush out.”

“And Dad was cool with that?” I thank my lucky stars when I remember that I actually parked my car in the garage instead of leaving it in the driveway like I usually do. Hopefully Daddy bought Daisy’s lame lie? My heart hammers at the thought of getting caught in the middle of my daddy and Gunner Hunt.

Definitely not a place I want to be.

“Fuck no, he wasn’t! He gave me the third degree about who it was and where you went. And all the while, I was just praying you weren’t actually mysteriously abducted while I covered your tracks. You could have at least poked your head outside and given him an excuse yourself, you know.”

“No, no I couldn’t. If I wasted time, Gunner might have left.”

“Then screw him! If he wasn’t into sticking around, good riddance.”

“Don’t say that. We had an incredible night.”

“Incredible, as in, things are good now? No more guessing where you stand? Just water, please,” Daisy says to the waitress who appears out of nowhere.

“For you?” the waitress asks. I glance quickly at the menu without really seeing it.

“Uh, coffee and water, please.” I glance up as I say it and the notice girl taking our order is completely gorgeous. That kind of take-your-breath-away gorgeous that makes you want to curl up inside yourself because you feel like a child all of a sudden by comparison.

“Sure thing,” she says.

“I feel like I’ve seen her before somewhere,” Daisy says, watching the waitress as she walks away. “You know her?”

I shake my head.

“So, not to change the subject, but after you left, your dad went and sat over with his other guests. Which left me alone with Clay.” Daisy’s smile is what my mother would have called a “cat in the cream” smile.