The Magnolia Chronicles: Adventures in Modern Dating(86)

"How did I know you wanted this?" Andy bit down on her lip while her eyes closed and she nodded. She was beautiful, and completely at my mercy. "The sweater, for one. You wanted me staring at your tits, thinking about tasting them."

My tongue teased over her and I felt her walls spasm around my fingers.

"The flirting, for two. You let me watch you with all those guys, knowing you'd torture me until you got me alone. You're evil like that, kitten."

Gently biting at her folds, I twisted my wrist and increased the rhythm.

"The drink, for three. You knew I'd want to know what and why. And finally—"

My tongue circled her clit, and I felt her pulsing against me.

"You wanted me staring. You like keeping this dirty little secret from them." I smiled against her wet center. My tongue swirled over her clit again and I was rewarded with a shuddering moan. "But what you really want is me taking you back to my place and tying you to the bed. You really want me fucking you all night."

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," she groaned, her hand pulling at my hair. I was on board with a bald spot if it meant feeling Andy come on my fingers. "Don't stop, Patrick."

I wanted to respond to her demand, and insist a flaming asteroid slamming through the building wasn't stopping me, but her hand held me in place as the tremors rippled in her core. Latching onto her clit, I sucked greedily when the spasms rolled through her body and she chanted unintelligibly, mumbled pleas and curses mingling with my name. Andy's fingers twisted in my hair when her release finally arrived, her inner walls surging and contracting for minutes while my tongue traced her clit and she panted my name.

I wanted to hear my name, just like that, for the rest of my life.

Andy's knees threatened to give out, and I reluctantly pulled my fingers away. I stood, anchoring her to the wall. After half an hour of worshipping Andy, my belt was strangling my cock, and the rush of blood to my brain dulled my senses. A wide, lazy grin spread across her face when our eyes met, hers slightly unfocused and soft. Exactly as I wanted her.

Andy's plump lips brushed against my neck and jaw, finally reaching my mouth for a slow kiss. I always knew she had a filthy side. I just needed to invite it out to play.

"That was…incredibly thorough," she sighed against my mouth, and I was ready to respond with an offer to spend the night at my place but she shook her head, pressing a finger against my lips. "But we shouldn't. This is such a bad idea. No more of this. We have to stop."

Her voice trailed off and I released her from my hold. It hit me while she was righting her jeans and fluffing her hair into place: she was politely dismissing me.

Drinking in one last look at Andy, the emptiness blindsided me. Her rejection, my day reliving family bullshit, my agonizing week. It all slammed into my chest, and I couldn't get out of that bathroom quickly enough.



The Space Between is available now!





An Excerpt from Preservation





Alexandra





He pointed at the plate between us. "These are my favorite pretzel bites in the city. Try some."

I shot him a sharp look. "Are you just trying to get me in a good mood?" I asked. "I did eat lunch today."

"Oh yeah?" he asked, dipping two pretzels in the accompanying sauce. "What did you have? Based on you yelling at me about noticing your shoes, I'd say it was an iced venti skinny latte."

"Almonds," I replied. And an iced venti skinny latte but I wasn't copping to that just yet.

Riley tried to fight a laugh, failed. "Almonds?" he repeated.

"Chocolate-covered almonds, yes." I folded my arms across my chest. "It was an appropriate amount of calories, fat, protein, and carbs."

He shook his head and ate another pretzel. "I don't want to live in a world where a few almonds—chocolate or otherwise—are lunch." He pointed to the plate and pushed his beer toward me. "Eat. Drink. Please."

I glared at the pilsner and pretzels. I hated being told what to do. Just fucking hated it. But then my stomach growled—goddamn digestive muscles—and Riley shot me a pointed glance.

"People think that a rumbling stomach is the sign of hunger," I said, reaching for his glass. I drained the beer and then selected a pretzel for dipping. "It is not. The muscles of the stomach and small intestines are always contracting, and those contractions make more noise when the organs are empty."

Riley gazed at me, his expression flat. It gave me a moment to study him while choosing another pretzel. He was wearing jeans, a tailored shirt with the cuffs rolled up to his elbows, and a pinstriped vest, and his hair was a wreck. It looked like he'd been tugging the dark strands in every conceivable direction. His eyes were rimmed with a bit of red and his lids heavy, as if he'd been rubbing them or hadn't gotten much sleep. Perhaps both. There was a small notebook beside his phone, and a mechanical pencil tucked into the spiral binding.

And he was still more attractive than I knew how to handle. Even tired and irritable, and ordering me to eat his pretzels and drink his beer, he was hot as fuck. I bit into another pretzel and offered him a small smile.

"Would you say the chip on your shoulder is massive or epic?" he asked. There was no hint of amusement in his tone, and he was staring at me with more ice than I'd believed he could muster. It didn't feel like we were sniping at each other anymore. "It might be semantics to you but I'm trying to get a feel for what I'm dealing with here."