IRL: In Real Life (After Oscar, #1)(84)

He laughed. “I couldn’t think that about you. Ever. Are you kidding? Karen from Life Support told me you’ve been trying to slip her cash when she wasn’t looking.”

“Shut up,” I said, playfully pushing at his shoulder. “You shouldn’t be paying for someone to help me do my job.”

He placed his hands on my shoulders, turning me to face him on the bed. “Conor Newell, listen to me.” Jesus, he sounded like my mother. “You’re working your ass off. Don’t you think you deserve a little help? Do you have any idea how good it makes me feel that I somehow lifted your burdens even a little bit when you weren’t talking to me?”

Well, when he put it that way, maybe it was different.

“Still,” I said.

“Don’t pout. Even though you’re sexy as fuck when you do it.” He reached up to tug my bottom lip with his thumb. I took his entire digit into my mouth and sucked on it, which caused him to make an obscene sound that went straight to my cock.

I tried to picture Wells Grange in Asheville. It was weird. Like imagining Taylor Swift scanning six-packs and cigarettes behind the counter at the quickie-mart.

But it also felt good. Giddiness began to bubble inside me at the thought of sharing my town with him.

Sharing my life.

“Maybe I could show you that hiking trail I told you about behind my mom’s house,” I said around his thumb. “And we could go camping under the stars when the weather gets warmer.”

His voice pitched low and gravelly. “You’re sending me mixed messages, beautiful. Your voice is making long-term plans while your mouth is making short-term promises. Dirty ones.”

He rocked his stiff cock against mine again, and I brought my legs around him to lock him against me.

“What about dinner?” I teased. “Didn’t you say I was looking gaunt and needed to eat something?”

“Oh, I have something I can feed you.”

I threw my head back and laughed. Wells watched, a grin on his lips and a promise in his eyes. I reached out to run my hands through his hair. “You’re really going to consider moving to Asheville?”

“Not consider. Do. Deb has found several places for me to look at when we get back there after the conference. I’d love your opinion on them.”

I stupidly felt a little disappointed. When I pictured him in my town, I pictured him with me.

“Hmm,” Wells said with a teasing smile again. He pressed his thumb against the spot between my eyes, smoothing it. “Interesting. You frowned just now when I mentioned finding my own place.”

“Mmpfh.”

“A little bird told me you moved into an apartment over your mom’s garage since she got diagnosed. I figured I could buy someplace you and I both like not too far away from your mom’s place, and… well, you could still be there when you felt like she needed you, but when she’s doing well…”

My heart thumped happily against my ribs when I realized what he was saying. I put my hand on my chest and batted my eyelashes. “Why, Wells Grange, are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?” My Southern drawl poured out like honey.

He grabbed my hand and pulled it to his lips, drawing his mouth across my knuckles. “I’d rather demand it if we’re being honest. This implying shit is for the birds.”

I let my mouth curl into a teasing smirk. Then I very slowly and very deliberately ran my tongue along my lower lip, sucking it into my teeth. “Then demand it.”

Before I knew what happened, I was on my back on the bed. Wells had my wrists in one of his hands, pinning them over my head. He straddled me, the strain of his cock against his pants painfully obvious. I ground my dick up into his ass, and he let his weight settle more fully on me, pinning me to the bed.

I loved the power coiled through his body, the way he held it in check so that he wouldn’t overwhelm me. The way every fiber of his being was focused on me in that moment as if I was the most precious thing in the world to him. As if nothing else mattered to him than me.

“Do you want to know what I demand?” he growled.

God yes. I nodded vigorously.

He leaned forward so that his face hovered just over mine. “I demand that you let me share my life with you.” He dropped his head, pressing a kiss to the base of my throat, at the hollow of my collarbones. Then he lifted up again so he could look me in the eyes.

I nodded again. “Yes,” I told him, breathless.

His hands tightened around my wrists. “Yes, what?”

I groaned, my eyes practically rolling back in my head at the gravelly command of his voice. “Yes, sir.”

He smiled and a fierce pleasure stole through me. He dropped his head to the side of my jaw, tracing his mouth along it until he reached my ear. “I demand that you allow me to pleasure you,” he whispered, taking the lobe between his teeth.

I couldn’t help it—I ground my hips against his ass again. “Yes, sir.”

His lips trailed up to my temple, brushing against my eyelids as soft as breath. “I demand that you let me worship you.”

I arched, wanting to feel more of him against me. Needing more of him. “Yes… sir.”

He took my other earlobe in his mouth, running his hot tongue across the sensitive flesh. “I demand more. I demand everything.”