“I just moved in today,” I said as we walked south. “Everything’s still in boxes.”
“Doesn’t bother me.” Beau took my hand again as we walked, pulling me close almost possessively. “Just wanted a little privacy.”
He drew out the word “privacy” long and slow, with a twang that sent a rumble to my core. The days we’d spent together the previous week, and the nights we’d shared, were all still fresh in my mind. We walked with an urgent, untamable stride, inhaling lungfuls of city wind and basking in things unspoken.
I liked being with Beau again, but it was always when we spoke that things got all kinds of complicated. We rode the elevator to my new apartment in one of Wilder’s buildings, and not but two seconds after we’d flung the door open, Beau pinned me against the wall.
“What are you doing to me, Beau?” I breathed, my thoughts scrambling to make sense of this powerless woman I was becoming.
“I reckon it’s the same damn thing you’re doing to me,” he growled. “You and I have been unfinished business long enough now. ‘Bout time we finish this.”
My heart raced, my body yielding to his like snow melting under the sun. The Ice Queen was officially thawing. In fact, she was becoming quite feverish with each passing second.
His hands cupped my face, his fingers tangled in my hair. Lowering his mouth onto mine and depositing a honey-sweet kiss, I breathed him in. With nerves firing in rapid succession each time he pressed his body firm against mine, my tongue danced against his.
And then his kisses grew hungry, leaving my mouth in search of bare flesh. Still dressed from my interview with him, there wasn’t much that remained uncovered. His fingers left my hair and worked each pearl button of my blouse until it gaped open wide, revealing a preview of my lace bra.
His hands worked the button of my pants, tugging them off along with my panties before I kicked them aside and let my blouse fall off my shoulders.
Beau hoisted me up, wrapping my legs around him, and carried me over to the sofa, one of the only things in the entire place that wasn’t in a cardboard moving box. I straddled his lap as he lowered us down into the downy cushions, and a hint of his bulge pressed against my core.
I wanted him.
So badly.
But at the same time, I couldn’t shake what Harrison had whispered into my ear earlier. He wanted me to ask Beau what really happened with Daisy Foxworthy, which meant Harrison knew something I didn’t.
Beau’s hand gripped the underside of my jaw as his other found its way behind my back, unhooking my bra and letting it fall.
“You’re so fucking beautiful, Kota,” he said with a teasing half-smile as his teeth raked his full bottom lip. He leaned into me, closing the space between us again as his lips crushed mine. A swelling sensation between my thighs sent my mind into a blank state, like an animal with primal urges that overrode everything else.
My eyes trailed over his shoulder to the city view outside my uncovered window. It would’ve bothered Coco tremendously to be two seconds from making love in front of the world, but Dakota didn’t care.
Dakota wanted Beau. She was a slave to his love and always had been.
Nothing else mattered.
I gripped the bottom of his t-shirt, pulling it up over his head and disheveling his thick dark hair before crashing into him once again, our bare skin fusing together. My hips bucked and rolled, grinding against his lap in anticipation of what was to come.
Beau unbuckled his jeans, pushing them down just enough to expose his throbbing cock. Pulling a rubber from his wallet, he sheathed himself and then sent his hands to the small of my back, hoisting me down onto him and sending a torrent of electric rain rushing down my spine. His right hand slid around the front of my hip, his thumb massaging my clit as we rocked in tandem, meeting each other movement for movement.
His opposite hand grabbed a fistful of my hair, pulling my head back. Beau’s lips seared into the sensitive flesh of my neck, branding me kiss by kiss with his soul. Our rhythm became desperate, his kisses greedier. I lifted my ass higher, coming down onto him harder and deeper, faster and more desperate. With each impalement, I banished every thought that briefly fluttered across my brain that told me this wouldn’t work.
Rocking.
Rolling.
Grinding.
Each second brought me closer to the edge. With labored breathing and my body tightening around him, an intense explosion inside me heightened every emotion – good or bad – coursing my body.
I lowered my face, wanting to look into his eyes as he came inside me. Beau caught my bottom lip between his teeth before kissing me again and releasing a deep groan before shuddering and releasing himself.
I fell onto him, our chests heaving together and the coolness of the apartment air wrapping itself around us. With deliciously sore lips, I smiled, breathing in a sated contentment that was quickly replaced with plaguing doubts.
How funny that the boy I’d sworn off could give me one knowing look and bark out one command and I’d dropped my panties to the floor without a single objection.
“Come home with me, Dakota,” Beau said, breaking the silence that made the thoughts in my head blaring and loud. Our eyes met, locking like magnets and making me forget how to breathe for a second as the future flashed before me.
“You know I can’t do that.” I climbed off him, sitting beside him.
He pulled my legs across his lap. “You know I can’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”
For ten years, I had an ache in my heart where he should’ve been. And now my heart was flooded with more Beau than I knew what to do with. My body and soul had damned the torpedoes and blasted full speed ahead without so much as consulting my head, and now I was stuck in some sort of murky area where one wrong decision could demolish the life I’d worked so hard to build.
“It’s not that simple,” I said with polished regret. “I have a contract at work. I might get promoted…”
And you might break my heart again.
Oh, and I gave our baby up for adoption ten years ago, and I’m scared you might hate me for it.
“I realize I’m offering you the world when you’ve got your own one right here,” he said, “but I don’t care. I’ll wait. I’ll wait for you, Dakota. Because I don’t want anyone else.”
All the reasons it wouldn’t work flooded my mind, though they were all rooted in one thing: fear.
It was funny though, because fear had never stopped me from doing anything before. I prided myself on being fearless and brave, climbing mountains and ruthlessly pursuing dreams like my life depended on them.
But there I was, afraid to love Beau, really love him. Afraid to tell him my secret. No, I was terrified.