Well Matched (Well Met #3)(35)

But I had no intention of saying no. Time didn’t exist here in this hotel room. Real life wouldn’t be back until tomorrow afternoon. For now, I didn’t have to be a mom. I didn’t have to be anyone, or anywhere but in this man’s arms.

I rose onto my toes and plunged my fingers into his hair, deepening our kiss. My decision was made.





Ten





I thought I was used to Mitch. We’d spent time together since he and Emily had become friends. He was a tactile guy, and I’d become accustomed to his touch: his arm thrown around me at Jackson’s when he chased off that guy in the gray suit. That brief press of his fingertips at the small of my back when we were in a crowd.

I thought I was ready for Mitch. He’d kissed me before. Hell, he’d kissed me that day, in the backyard after the touch football game. He was a good kisser, that was for sure. So when I reached for him, blatantly asking for more, I thought I knew what I was getting into.

I was wrong. He’d been holding back. And I was about to find out how much.

He made a startled sound in his throat as I pressed closer, harder, nipping at his top lip with my teeth. But he recovered fast: he cupped my head in one large hand, steering the kiss, drinking me in. His other arm slid around my back, pulling me into his body. He was so tall, so broad, so present, that it didn’t take long to feel completely consumed by him. Dominated.

My whole world had spiraled down to nothingness, a place that only contained him and me and this room. He spun us, pressing me against the wall next to the window. His growl of frustration rumbled against my chest, a shiver breaking across my skin. Before I could react he’d lifted me against him; my back hit the wall and my legs wrapped around his hips like it was something we did all the time. How could someone that much taller, that much bigger, fit against me so well?

He rocked against me, using the wall as leverage, and I broke our kiss with a moan. I squirmed against him, the heat between my legs pulsing, seeking out the hardness between his. God, it had been so long. So. Damn. Long.

“April.” My name was a groan, and he pressed a hand flat on the wall next to my head. “We . . . are you sure you want to do this?”

I’d never heard my laugh the way it sounded now. Rough. Desperate. “Are you kidding me? I’m not exactly playing coy here.”

He laughed too, and God, he was gorgeous when he did. A smile like noontime sunshine and eyes crinkling at the edges. “I’m just saying . . .” He leaned in and kissed me again, slowly now and leisurely, his tongue lingering and thorough like we had all the time in the world to do nothing but this. “This is kind of above and beyond our agreement.”

“That’s okay . . .” My smile turned into a gasp as his mouth moved across my jaw and to my throat. “Weekend’s not over yet. You still need a girlfriend.”

“I really do.” His mouth against my skin muffled his voice, and I shivered when his tongue found that place at the side of my neck that melted me. I’d forgotten all about that spot. “Hmmm. You like that?” He did it again, tongue stroking, teeth nipping, and I let my head fall back to thud against the wall.

“I like all kinds of stuff,” I managed. My breath shuddered in my lungs. “I haven’t . . . it’s been a while, you know? So it’s all . . .”

“Wait, what?” He pulled back to look me in the eye. No. Get back to kissing me. “How long, exactly?”

I didn’t want to think about that. The worst part was that I couldn’t rattle off an answer right away, and his eyes became more alarmed the longer I took to think. “Four years? Five? Maybe?” Certainly before my accident, and a little before that. Derek had worked in my building; we’d run into each other at the elevator or the lobby coffee cart enough times that he’d finally asked me out to dinner. It hadn’t lasted, but it had been fun while it had.

“Five years?” Mitch looked appalled. “That’s ridiculous, are you kidding me? Five years without an orgasm? That’s—”

“What? No!” It was my turn to be appalled. “You think I don’t know how to take care of myself? My vibrator collection begs to differ. The top drawer of my nightstand is my happy place.”

Mitch laughed, a sharp crack of sound. “That’s my girl.” His grin was infectious, and I tried to ignore the thrill that went through me at his words. I wasn’t his girl. I shouldn’t want to be his girl. But none of that seemed to matter right now.

“So.” His hands on the backs of my thighs tightened, hitching me a little higher up his body, and my hands tightened instinctively on the back of his neck as sparks flew through me. “What say we move this party about ten feet that way?” He jerked his head backwards in a nod, indicating that massive bed in the middle of the room.

Yes. Every single part of me started rejoicing, but I couldn’t speak, my throat clogged with a combination of emotion and desire. So I nodded and he hitched me up even higher, turning to walk across the room with me still wrapped around him. Each step moved me against his body in ways that made my blood go nuclear.

“God, you’re strong.” He was carrying me around the way I’d carried that bag of avocados last night. Like I weighed nothing. Like I was something he was going to make into something delicious. I tightened my thighs around his hips and he took in a sharp breath.