“I can’t do this,” Tucker muttered.
Nevada crossed to the sofa and sat next to him.
“I can’t live without her.” He turned to stare at Nevada, his eyes bloodshot. “She’s my world. Without her…” Pain tightened his features. “I never want to feel this way again. Love blows. But I couldn’t help myself, you know? Not with her.”
“It’s okay,” she told him, tentatively touching his shoulder. “I know it hurts now, but you’ll find someone else.”
“No. Never. There’s only her.”
His pain ripped at Nevada, leaving her desperately wanting to fix him. She ignored her own ache, hearing the man she loved declare his feelings for someone else.
“There isn’t.” She put her hand on his face and turned him toward her. “There isn’t just her.” She drew in a breath, dug deep for courage and blurted, “There’s me.”
His brows drew together in confusion.
“I love you,” she said quickly, before she lost her nerve. “I have for a long time. Cat doesn’t care about you. She can’t care about anyone. But I do care, Tucker. So much.”
She kissed him, her mouth bumping his awkwardly.
He didn’t respond. He didn’t pull away, but he didn’t kiss her back. Instead he sat there, immobile. She ignored the humiliation, the voice screaming at her to run while she still had some pride left.
“Tucker, please,” she whispered against his lips, then grabbed his hand and placed it on her breast.
She’d never done anything like that before in her life. Part of it was that she’d never had sex before. While she’d dated in high school, the farthest she’d ever gone had been a boy lightly stroking her breast over clothes.
But this was different. This was Tucker and he was her world. As much as he thought he loved Cat, Nevada knew she loved him more. Her love was great, bigger and stronger. It would survive anything.
Suddenly he started kissing her back. His hand closed over her breast, squeezing so hard it hurt. His tongue pushed into her mouth as he shoved up her shirt and fumbled with her bra.
He never got it unfastened. Instead he pulled her breast out of the cup and rubbed the nipple.
Everything was so strange, she thought, trying to figure out what to pay attention to. He tasted and smelled of Scotch, which wasn’t exactly what she was used to. And while the hand on her breast no longer hurt, she didn’t have time to decide if she enjoyed it or not. Because just when she thought she might have felt a tingle, he was grabbing her around the waist and sliding her down on the sofa. His hands moved between them.
She felt fingers on her belly, then her jeans and panties were being lowered. He pushed one pant leg off, taking her sandal with it, but left the other on.
It was everything she wanted and it was happening too fast. A voice in her head whispered she hadn’t imagined it like this. Not on a sofa with him drunk and her…
“Tucker, I…”
Even as she tried to figure out what she wanted to say, he shifted back on the sofa and bent between her legs, pressing his mouth against her intimately. Before she could figure out what was happening, he was kissing her down there!
She’d read about it, had heard friends talk about it, but nothing had prepared her for the deep, slow kiss. His lips were so soft and, when he moved his tongue like that, back and forth, she thought she was going to die.
It was perfect, she thought, sinking back on the sofa and giving herself up to an unfamiliar tingling surging through her. Better than perfect. This had to prove that Tucker cared about her. He couldn’t do this to her if he didn’t love her.
He licked her over and over, making her squirm. She felt tense and aware, not sure what was supposed to happen next. Something beckoned and she knew she wanted more. She parted her legs as much as she could and did her best to hold in her whimpers of pleasure.
He straightened and looked into her eyes. “I want you,” he breathed. “Do you want me, too?”
“Yes,” she breathed, “more than anything.”
She felt a rush of longing, of need, and drew him close. He moved toward her, positioning himself between her legs.
His first thrust took her by surprise. She went from arousal to uncomfortable in a second and had to bite her lip to keep from crying out.
He continued moving in and out, slowly at first and then faster. Nevada had just started to feel the first tendrils of pleasure again when he cried out, “It’s always been you, Cat. Only you. God, yes. Just like that.”
She was too stunned, too broken to say anything back.
He didn’t even know who she was.
That thought tumbled over and over in her mind, cutting her with each repetition. She lay still as he pushed into her a couple more times, then stilled with a groan.