Anyone But Rich (Anyone But..., #1)(54)

The slight, nearly imperceptible hitch in his kisses told me he’d heard it, and the increased intensity a second later told me he’d liked it too.

It didn’t take long to figure out that Rich was like a vampire for my pleasure. Any indication of enjoyment I gave out seemed to flow straight into him as energy. His kisses grew heavier and more sensual every time I moaned or squirmed in his grip. His breaths grew heavier and his movements more desperate.

It was a frantic race to a finish line I could sense but not see—a test to find out how high we could climb before one of us would fall.

I dug my fingertips through his hair, squeezing hard enough that it probably hurt, but I couldn’t stop myself. His tongue slid across my most sensitive places, exploring me with a familiarity and thirst that was as carnal as it was intimate.

“I’m ready,” I breathed.

“I don’t remember putting you in charge,” he said from between my legs. The bastard didn’t even move far enough away from me to stop his lips from moving against me with each syllable. Every word teased me deeper.

“Tough shit.” I laughed. It was a desperate kind of laugh. I needed to come or I’d burst. It was almost too much. Too good.

He gave me one parting kiss between my legs before he kissed an agonizingly slow, meandering path up my body. He took an extra-long detour around my breasts, and when he finally reached my chin, he kissed his way up my jawline and paused at my ear. “You’re lucky I’m so desperate to get inside you, Kira. Otherwise, I’d make you play by the rules.”

Each word slid into my ear and seemed to take on a life of its own, curling across my body like wisps of hot smoke. I suspected I was supposed to have something witty to say. Something so devilishly sexy that it would make him laugh and want to sleep with me all at the same time. So of course, I delivered on all counts.

“Okay,” I whispered back.

He did laugh. “Okay, then.” A determination and focus colored his eyes, and he reached down between us with one hand. I felt the silky head of his cock against me. I was wet. God, I was so wet it was almost embarrassing, but something told me it would only turn Rich on more. If my excitement was his fuel, then what more pure form could it take, after all?

He pushed his hips forward slightly, and in a single, eye-opening moment, I understood what the fuss was all about. Years of lying to myself about how I didn’t actually need a man went up in smoke. I understood it wasn’t just about the sensation—that wonderful friction and the fullness I felt with him inside me. There was a connection words couldn’t describe. We’d both stripped away all our clothes and our barriers. We wore our feelings for each other on our sleeves in the most plain, inarguable way possible.

It was pure. It was beautiful. And I wondered how I’d ever think about anything except chasing this moment and all the moments like it for the rest of my life.

I tightened my thighs around him, pulling him closer to me and causing him to bury himself even deeper. My back arched, and my mouth was agape. Distantly, I realized I was gasping and moaning for him, but it felt like the sounds were coming from too far away to be from me, like I was slowly floating away from my body to a place where nothing negative could touch me.

Just like when he was between my legs with his mouth, he seemed to feed on my pleasure. The intensity of his thrusts and the tightness of his grip on my hips and breasts and shoulders increased with a gradual inevitability like a piece of music climbing toward a crescendo. Except there weren’t enough notes or instruments complex enough to carry music to such heights. We climbed and climbed together, his body becoming slick and hot against mine as we made love and as we fucked.

I dug my fingernails into his back and my heels into his ass like I was worried someone would try to pull us apart.

He had a way of reading me, of pushing me to the brink of climax and then pulling back or changing his movements just enough to keep me from falling over the edge. Each time he diverted me from the inevitable, the building pressure inside me grew.

It was ecstasy and torment all wrapped into one.

Finally, even he couldn’t stop it from happening. He gripped me by the cheeks and kissed me like I’d never been kissed. All the while his hips kept pumping against me. My walls tightened involuntarily, gripping him until the friction felt unbearably good.

Rich slid himself out of me, and I felt something surprisingly warm spread across my belly and sink between my legs. He came too. I don’t know why the thought struck me with the remote surprise it did, but I guess I’d secretly been afraid he was only pretending I was doing a good job.

Even after he slid out of me, the waves of white-hot bliss didn’t stop. I gasped into his mouth and lay trembling against his lips while my body unleashed what felt like a lifetime supply of chemicals into my system. There couldn’t have been any drug that compared—no natural high could have come close. I thought back to what Rich had said about getting addicted and knew if he was, it would make two of us.





Chapter 20





RICH


Kira wore one of my button-downs, which was big enough to fit her like a long-sleeved dress. She sat at my kitchen table a little after midnight with a cup of hot chocolate, and I couldn’t get enough of the way she kept grinning at me over the rim of her cup.

“What?” she asked.

“It’s nothing.” I leaned against the kitchen counter and took a gulp of water. I felt surprisingly drained after our little encounter. And thirsty. “You’ve got the afterglow. Flushed cheeks. Smiley.” I shrugged. “It’s a good look on you. That’s all.”