Soft.
“Lex.” I splayed my palm across the beat of her heart, right between those gorgeous tits. I cupped the right one, thumb brushing her pretty pink nipple, fucking loving the way it pebbled and grew tight.
Loved the way she panted when I trailed down, brushing the delicate skin of her soft belly before I cinched my hand down tight on her hip.
She gasped. “Zachary.”
“What do you need?” It was all a demand.
She didn’t hesitate. “I need you.”
I spun her around, her hands flat to the window. I wound the long locks of her hair into my hand, mouth at her ear. “You are so goddamned sweet. So gorgeous.”
My opposite hand rode the path of her spine, that damned star taunting me with its promise. Her ass jutted out as if on command, and I palmed her round bottom.
She shuddered, her sweet voice going rough with desire. “Zee.”
“I know, baby. I know exactly what you need.”
I shouldn’t. It should be so fucking foreign that I didn’t have a clue. But somehow, this girl made me remember myself, exactly the way she made me remember my piano.
I tightened my hold in her hair, guiding her lower, demanding all she had to offer.
“Perfection.”
Knees shaking, her breaths came harsher and harder as I tugged her hips out and closer to me, her hands pressed to the window to keep her standing.
I was overcome with the reality of it.
I didn’t ever want to see this girl fall. Never wanted her to darken or dim.
Wanted her to shine forever.
Which meant what I wanted most was to snuff out her threat.
Keeping hold of her with one hand, I twisted out of my underwear, kicked them free from my feet. I held my dick at the base, rubbing just the tip through her slick heat, so wet and ready for me.
Lust gripped me everywhere, spirit crushed by a devastating need.
I drove home, and Alexis screamed.
Like she wasn’t anticipating the full intrusion of me. Like she was just as unprepared as I’d been for the chaos that had devastated me when I’d found her standing at my door earlier this evening.
That had been the moment she had loosed something intrinsic in me.
Now I didn’t know how to hold it back.
So, I took her the way I could feel her taking hold of my heart, my hands splayed wide and gripping her ass while I pounded into the sweet, tight clutch of her body.
Her walls grasped at my cock.
It spun my mind with earth-shattering bliss.
I fucking loved that she let me take her bare. Like this precious girl needed me as close as she could get me. Like it might erase some of the bullshit fighting to separate us.
I let my thumbs run the crease of her ass, teasing her into a frenzy of need as I fucked her wild. She begged my name.
Zachary. Zachary. Zachary.
I fell into the spellbinding power of it. Into the feel of her body and the sound of her gasps. Got lost in that energy that pitched through the air.
Alexis tumbled over the edge.
I could feel her sinking in everywhere as she took me with her.
My body bowed as I came. Exploded. Mind-blowing, earth-shattering pleasure.
My fingers dug deeper into her hips because I didn’t ever want to let her go.
If I could, I’d let this girl take me wherever she went.
Finally, her knees went weak, and she sagged forward. I held her up, one hand scooping up the sheet in the same second I swept her into my arms, carrying her back to my bed.
Without a doubt, I was the biggest fool who’d ever lived.
Because that was exactly where I wanted to keep her.
My cell vibrating on my nightstand pulled me from sleep. I groaned and blinked into the breaking day.
Blindly, I swatted for it. Truth of the matter? I didn’t want to move. For a second, I just wanted to relish in the feel of her curled up in my hold, her head on my shoulder and that sweet body tucked up close to mine.
I finally focused on my phone when it rang again.
Baz.
I accepted the call and pressed it to my ear, voice gruff with sleep. “This better be important, asshole. Not even six in the morning.”
And I was getting about the best damned night of sleep in my life. Last thing I wanted was to get roused from the dream. This fucking perfect, impossible dream.
“Got a call from Ash a half hour ago. Willow’s water broke in the middle of the night. They’ve been at the hospital for a few hours. Looks like it’s happening soon. Shea and I are heading that way. It’s family time, brother.”
A shot of fear jolted through me, worry I could never shake. The need to keep this family tight. Safe.
Alexis stirred and shifted to look over at me with concern.
“It’s early, isn’t it?” I asked him.
I could feel Baz’s easiness through the phone, his own anticipation blazing through. “Nah, man, like three weeks. Shea says that’s cool. If he’s ready, he’s ready.”
That fear shifted to excitement, and that feeling of commitment pounded through my veins. “All right. Be there in a bit.”
I ended the call and let the phone drop to the bed.
My world skidded to a stop when I glanced over at the girl who was staring at me from where she was propped up on her elbow, at the ready to be at my side the same way I wanted to be for her.
She was so fucking pretty. Gorgeous in that humble way, and that feeling tightened in my chest. That feeling I couldn’t allow her to make me feel but she was pulling from me anyway.
I should tell her I needed to go. That I’d see her later, all the while knowing I was shutting her out.
Because I couldn’t afford for her to get any closer to me. Couldn’t afford whatever the fuck was happening between us.
I should’ve ended it right there, because after last night things were more intense than they’d ever been.
I should.
Instead, I smiled and patted her sweet ass. “Come on, we have a baby on the way.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Alexis
“Are you sure it’s okay I’m here?”
Zee clasped my hand in his as we climbed into the elevator. He squeezed me a little tighter and tossed me a glance that breezed through me like the calm after a ravaging summer storm.
His expression was the kind that made you want to look toward the sky in wonder. To memorize the moment—engrave it on your heart—because you were sure you’d never experience anything quite so beautiful again.
“I want you here.”
I was still reeling after last night, still staggered by the fact that he had given in.
I’d felt it, the shift in our worlds as everything tipped and became something brand new.
Something better.
This connection profound.
I nestled a little closer to him. “Good, because this is exactly where I want to be.”