Wreck the Halls

“I know. Jesus, Mel. Jesus.”

He didn’t know everything about Melody’s sexual likes and dislikes yet. He would, though. For now, he just wanted to thank God. He wasn’t a religious man, but he’d been a good enough person to earn this privilege. She’d confided in him about holding herself back from other partners in the past, but not with him. No. She trusted him enough to let go. He could practically feel her bestowing that honor on him, his body responding in kind.

“You let go with me,” he breathed, letting go of her backside to cup the back of her neck, his hips lifting into her with vigorous slaps, her thighs trembling more with every upward punch. “Let go with me.”

She made this whimpering sound that almost caused him to spill and tightened her thighs around his hips, her pace increasing to a gallop. Every time she took him balls deep, Beat swore he felt it in an undiscovered region of his stomach.

“I’m close,” she said hoarsely.

His eyes rolled back into his head, his fingers curling into fists. “Go get it, Melody. Fuck me. Make me hurt. Then take it all away, before I get there, baby, please.” His nails dug into his palms until they broke the skin. “Goddamn, you’ve got me so stiff.”

Melody’s tongue was hot and magical on his neck and he allowed himself to pretend that she required his taste in order to orgasm. It burned him alive with hunger, his hands molding to her ass again and yanking her up and back, his cock growing harder, reaching for that free fall of relief he wouldn’t let himself take. And suddenly, her thighs jerked and she screamed into his shoulder, moisture pooling where their bodies joined and he couldn’t help it. His heart demanded he delve his fingers into her hair and lift her head, so he could watch her eyes while she plummeted to earth.

He would well and truly never be the same again.

The axis of his world tilted, changed directions, desperation clawing even deeper into his being. This wasn’t sex for the sake of lust, but a requirement to get as close to this woman as humanly possible. Before he could register his own actions, he was coming to his feet with Melody still impaled on his shaft and throwing her down onto the mattress, coming down on top of her and fucking her for broke.

“I was right. Pulling out of you is going to be pure hell. God, it’s so wet.”

Panic set in as the hedonism inside of him, inside of them both, ran wild. Oh God. He wasn’t going to stop. He couldn’t stop. Not with her so smooth beneath him, their eyes fastened together, flesh slapping sharply with every thrust. But he should have known to trust Melody to give him exactly what he was craving. She waited until his teeth were drawing blood from his bottom lip, his abdomen hollowing in warning and she leaned up, whispering, “Stop,” against his mouth, her nails raking down his back, burying in the flesh of his ass. “Don’t. Move.”

Beat dropped his open mouth into the curve of her neck just in time to catch his hoarse groan. He shook so hard with the need to come that he had to clench his teeth to keep them from chattering. His toes twisted in the mattress, his balls in his fucking stomach. He wasn’t going to make it out of this alive and while it was torture, it was also paradise. “Yes. Please,” he grunted, mentally commanding himself not to grind, not to pump. “Make me work for it. Make me work for you.”

“Wouldn’t it feel so good to keep going?” she whispered in his ear.

“Yes,” he growled through his teeth.

She constricted around him. “Too bad.”

Pain was beginning to wrap around the base of his spine. “Please. Oh fuck, you’re so tight. Squeezing me.”

“You can ride me a little longer, but don’t come.”

The words were barely out of her mouth and Beat was bearing down on her, gripping her knees and pinning them up near her shoulders, his hips pistoning, sweat pouring down his spine, the sides of his face. He only managed about ten seconds before he felt the climax zippering his balls together, tightening, tightening. You have to stop.

“Jesus Christ, I’m so ruined for this pussy.”

“Keep going.”

“No. No, it’s going to be over. You fuck so hot.”

“Don’t stop,” she whispered, almost to herself.

“Mel. Mel.”

No. Your life has enough rewards. You don’t get this, too.

He barely managed to pull out of her in time. The orgasm was like a bomb going off, pulling every tendon and muscle in his body into a taut, vibrating line. He rolled off Melody onto the mattress and buried his face in the crook of his elbow, muffling his roar, his opposite hand reaching down to help finish himself off, which was completely unnecessary as wave after wave after wave of bliss whipped through him, visions of her continuing to play in his head. Her tits bouncing, her mouth parting on whimpers, her knees in his hands. Ohhh God, it went on forever, his loins locking and releasing until his entire body went slack, heart continuing to sprint in his chest.

Bar none, the most incredible sex of his life. Nothing had ever and would ever compare. Not only was he relieved physically, but mentally. Soulfully. He’d lost consciousness and woken up in a land where nothing bad happened.

That’s how he felt at first, anyway. In those initial moments of afterglow, he marveled over the way they’d fulfilled each other perfectly on the first try.

Until that glow started to fade and he realized . . . he wished, for once, that he was capable of sharing even more. Everything, including that final moment he’d never shared with anyone else. “Hey.” With an oddly panicked feeling swamping his sternum, he turned on his side and reached for her. “Come here.” Beat wrapped his arms around Melody, drew her up against his chest, and encompassed her in a bear hug, planting kisses all over her face, neck, and shoulders. “My peach.”

With a hesitant smile, she allowed Beat to arrange her arms around his torso, her head tucked beneath his chin, his embrace a crushing death grip.

“I’ve got you, I’ve got you, I’ve got you,” he chanted, even though it wasn’t enough.

But the next morning, he realized he didn’t have her.

Not at all.





Chapter Twenty-One





December 17



Melody wanted her bed.

She wanted her flannel pajamas and her loofah and her secret fruit snacks drawer.

She wanted to go home.

When she’d agreed to Wreck the Halls, she’d decided to take the adventure as it came. Not to worry about the outcome or ruminate over every little decision until she was blue in the face. She’d intended to shatter the walls of her comfort zone. Stir everything up so it would land differently. She’d wanted a new okay.

And she was feeling the consequences of being reckless now.

Emotional whiplash was her unofficial diagnosis and the symptoms were sitting in the back seat of the SUV that would transport them to the airport, staring straight ahead. Too dumbfounded by the last twenty-four hours to do anything but replay her uncharacteristically hasty decisions over and over again.