What the fuck is the right thing?
“Just stop and think about what you’re saying for a minute. The past couple of days have been . . . a lot’s happened.” I was trying to put my thoughts together, but none of the pieces seemed to fit. I knew what I had to say, but it was the opposite of how I felt. The result was me sounding like a blundering idiot. “Yesterday, the things I did, I did in the heat of the moment. Maybe if I’d stopped to think, paused to question if I was doing the right thing, none of this would have happened. You wouldn’t be in the situation you are right now.”
Cora’s hand had slipped into mine, and she was guiding me into her room. I didn’t realize I’d let go of the door until I heard it slam closed.
“Instead I’d be in the situation of being humiliated in front of hundreds of guests at the wedding my fiancé failed to show up to? The situation of being alone and sad and scared?”
“But you’re scared right now,” I argued, reminding myself why I had to do the right thing when it came to Cora.
“Have you ever noticed how the more you do or admit or talk about whatever it is that scares you, the less it actually does?” The card key fell out of my hand when Cora’s other hand molded around my shoulder. “Like today, I was terrified to get in that water and snorkel, but once I decided I was going to do it no matter what, once I started to, I wasn’t scared anymore. I felt brave instead.”
My heart was hammering against my sternum, echoing in my eardrums. I nodded.
“I’m tired of being scared. I want to be brave, not frightened.” She moved closer, until the cloth from her towel was scratching against my chest. Her eyes dropped to my mouth. “Be brave with me.”
The right thing.
Do the right thing.
That was the chant going through my head when her mouth covered mine, her arms winding around my neck as she fitted her body against mine.
Whatever the right thing was, I couldn’t remember it, especially with the way she was kissing me. But this felt pretty damn right.
Fuck it.
I’d already made love to her four times in a day. What was once more?
“We have to talk,” I managed to get out.
“We will,” she whispered against my lips. “I promise. We’ll talk about everything. Until we’ve figured it all out.”
My mouth responded, claiming hers with my tongue, drawing a sound from deep inside her. My hands formed around her backside, lifting her off of the ground so her legs could tangle around me. When our laps collided, I rocked myself into her, desperate for her to feel my need for her. Desperate for her to know the depth of my need was as limitless as my love for her was.
“Matt,” she breathed against my mouth, making every nerve in my body come alive.
“Say it again.” I leaned back so I could watch my name form on her lips.
Her back bowed when I pressed myself against her again, my fingers digging deeper into her backside.
“Matt,” she breathed once more, her eyes meeting mine as she pitched against me.
I couldn’t wait. As much as I wanted to prolong this and draw it out into the next decade, I couldn’t wait.
“Next time you say it, I’m going to be inside you.” Grabbing her towel, I yanked it free and tossed it onto the floor. She worked at my towel, slipping her hand inside to stroke me a few times. “Wait, I’m too close. I need to be inside you. I need to feel you when I come.”
Cora reached between us and slid aside the material of her swimsuit. A moment later, she freed me from the confines of my own suit. She pressed herself against me, sliding up and down my aching length so I could feel how ready she was to take me. How much she wanted me.
Me. Matt.
Not Jacob.
Not me pretending to be Jacob.
Me.
Matt Adams.
The man who’d loved her for so long, I couldn’t remember a time when I hadn’t. Loving her had become a part of me. The defining part of me.
“Matt,” she sighed, her hands curling into fists. “Please.”
Hearing my name, listening to her practically beg—I knew better, but I couldn’t do better. Not with Cora. Not when it was her asking something of me. This, perhaps more than anything else, proved why I was so weak where she was concerned.
Shoving off the wall, I moved until my knees hit the mattress. Caging my arms around her back, I lowered her onto the bed, crashing my mouth into hers the moment her head hit the pillow. With her help, I finished tearing out of that god-awful swimsuit and kicked it to the floor. When I ground myself between her legs, her head rolled back, her mouth fell open, and a sound that drove me wild tumbled from her lips.
I was making her feel those things. Responsible for the sounds she was making for me. God, acknowledging that made me feel drunk with power.
“Please, Matt,” she whimpered again, shimmying out of her swimsuit bottoms.
“Don’t stop saying my name.” My jaw ground when she slid aside her top, revealing her breasts. “Don’t stop saying it.”
She nodded, biting her lip as I continued to rock my hips into her, trying to hold off for one last moment before I took her. I knew once I felt her, it would all be over. I probably should have been embarrassed by how quickly I came whenever I sank into her, but I wasn’t. Not the slightest bit of shame. She was everything I’d ever dreamed of, my proverbial fantasy in human form.
My mouth skimmed down her neck, my tongue leaving a wet trail. She arched closer the lower I went, and when I got to the heavy crest of her breast, I couldn’t help myself. I sucked on her skin hard, desperate to mark this exact spot on her body. Desperate to mark every spot of her body.
“Matt,” she whimpered, squirming as I worked at that perfect patch of skin.
When I pulled back, I grinned at what I’d done. Inside, my inner animal roared. A large red mark was starting to blossom at the top of her breast, and it looked so fucking perfect on her, I wanted to give the other one a mark to match.
Before I got there, the hotel phone rang. Below me, Cora jolted like she’d just been shaken out of a dream.
“It’s okay. Let it ring.” My mouth dropped to her neck again, loving the taste of the salty ocean on her skin.
“The front desk said they’d call to check to make sure I liked my room, or find out if I’d want to move.”
“The front desk can wait.” My fingers scrolled down her side, making her shiver. Between my legs, a growing ache was building. I wasn’t sure I could delay much longer.
“It’ll only take a second.” She smiled at me as she shimmied over to where the phone was ringing on the nightstand. “Overeager much?”
“Where you’re concerned?” My brow lifted. “Overeager always.”
She laughed softly then lifted her index finger as she grabbed the phone. While she did that, I reached between my legs to give my balls a squeeze because damn, they were not known for their patience.
“Hello?” she said, trying to sound natural, but she sounded breathless and excited, like she’d totally been getting laid. Or about to.