He snorted in the dark, leaning on the island counter with his hands gripping the edge so tightly his knuckles turned white.Yeah, right.
He’d been sick to his stomach with a deep sense of possessive protectiveness when he’d learned she was returning to dating. The last several months of watching her go on shitty dates with men who probably didn’t know the first thing about treating a woman right were gut wrenchingly miserable. There wasn’t a man in the area worthy of her. She was everything good in the world; so full of light and hope and beauty.
He’d known Ryan for years. He was well known around town, a decent guy. Recently divorced himself and a newly single father to his twelve-year-old daughter. Beau had never disliked him. Had never had a reason to.
Until Noelle had mentioned in passing one morning that Val was going on a second date with him, and he became Beau’s number one most disliked person: second only to Wes, Val’s cheating ex-husband.
He pushed away from the counter and crossed the small kitchen, opening cupboards until he found the bottle of whiskey she had offered earlier, along with a highball glass. He took it down, uncapped it, and poured a hefty portion into the bottom of the glass before tossing it back in one swallow.
The smart thing to do would be to grab his clothes and retreat to his own apartment.
How was he going to look at her now? See her every day in his coffee shop, now that he knew what she tasted like, what her skin felt like beneath his fingers… what she felt like coming for him, or the way his name sounded on her lips while he was buried inside her? How was he supposed to go back tobefore?
Because all he wanted to do was this same exact thing, every single night, and morning, andfuck, during the daytime, too. Anytime she’d want. Anywayshe’d want. He didn’t care, as long as he could hear his name fall from her lips while it was his mouth, his fingers, his cock making her come as hard as possible,as many timesas possible.
So, despite knowing the smart thing to do was to take his leave, he returned to her small bedroom and slid beneath the covers next to her, gathering her against him once again. Beau had never, not once, stayed the night with a woman. He was breaking all kinds of rules tonight. Val sighed in her sleep, burrowing against him and into the pillows, and studiously ignored the way his heart picked up its pace in his chest at just howgoodit felt. He kissed the back of her neck, then closed his eyes, and was asleep in minutes.
CHAPTER 12
Val woke by slow degrees. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept so soundly, or so comfortably. She was warm and though her head ached lightly, she was deliriously cozy. Stretching, her eyes snapped open when she realized why she was so warm; the entire backside of her body was pressed fully against another form, a heavy, warm arm wrapped around her waist. A strong, large hand was nestled in the groove between her breasts, and a long, muscled leg was draped over the back of one of hers.
The night before rushed through her mind. Beau. She had slept withBeau.
Barely daring to breathe, let alone move, she lay completely still. The shift in her breathing must have awakened him though because she couldn’t stop the gasp from tearing from her lips when she felt him growing hard at her backside. His fingers flexed where they were pressed between her breasts, squeezing one lightly as his arm tightened around her, aligning her more fully against his body.
She felt his mouth press against the slope of her shoulder where it met her back and her breathing hitched up anothernotch as her hips shifted against his lap, grinding into his morning erection. They both groaned in unison.
“If you ignore it, it will go away eventually,” he husked against her skin, where his mouth was still pressed. He made no move to shift away from her, though. They remained silent; her body nestled against his.
“Does this still count as part of the date?” she finally asked on a whisper into the grayish dawn of the room that drifted through the curtains.
His hand slid from between her breasts and pressed, palm flat, against the flatness of her ribcage below her breasts. His fingers stroked downward, over the softness of her belly, to the apex of her thighs. His hardness continued to press against her backside.
“Seeing as neither one of us snuck out of bed to leave, it would be a shame to waste it,” he breathed low, his lips still trailing along the skin of her shoulder. His beard tickled her, and she nodded. She was damn near panting.
She parted her thighs with a breathy sigh, allowing his fingers access to her. They strummed lightly, circling her clit and making her gasp sharply, before sinking two fingers inside her. She felt his groan as it reverberated through his chest and into her back.
He rolled away from her then, and she glanced at him over her shoulder. He padded, gloriously naked, into the bathroom, and she took the moment to admire his nakedness. Round, firm butt. Long, thick, muscled thighs that gave way to thick calves and well-kept feet. Infinitely broad shoulders that tapered into a sculpted, hard back. Biceps that begged to have a bite taken out of them. Everything dusted with dark hair… and tattoos. Both arms from the backs of his hands to shoulders were heavily inked, which she’d always known. But the tattoos that covered his legs had been a shock to her system the night before, and she hadn’t taken nearly enough time to look at them, too distracted by what he’d been doing to her body to pay attention to much else.
She heard a drawer open in the bathroom and some shuffling,then the sound of cardboard tearing along a perforated edge. He returned a moment later with a foil packet in his hands, and he quickly ripped it open before sliding the condom on his erection. He was back in the bed behind her a second later, pressing his warm body against her back once more.
Gripping the inside of her thigh with his hand, he lifted it higher and wrapped it around the backside of his hips as he lined himself up at her entrance. Val let out a long, low moan as he slid inside, working his hips in short, slow thrusts until he was buried completely. She felt his forehead fall against her shoulder as he huffed out a half sigh, half groan once he was seated fully inside her.
His palm slid from her thigh to her waist, then pressed his palm flat against her lower abdomen as he began to move. “Christ you’re so tight,” he groaned against the skin of her back. “You take me so well, Val. So good.”
He pounded into her hard from behind, her thigh still thrown over his. His hand moved down, and his fingers found her clit again, circling and strumming as he continued to move inside her. It’s like his fingers were magic; it wasn’t long before she was clutching at his arm, grinding into him as she began to spasm deep within, her orgasm rocketing through her and making her clamp down on his hammering cock.
His breathing was harsh against the back of her neck as she came around him hard, and then her face was being tipped up, his hand wrapped around the underside of her jaw. Their eyes met over her shoulder, and she panted raggedly. “Beau.”
He kissed her hard for just a moment, then released her jaw. She squeaked in surprise when he shifted them so that she was on her belly on the bed, and then he was sliding back inside her, her thighs pressed tightly together by his on either side of them. The position made her tighter and she groaned into the pillow when he slammed in deep, hitting that special spot deep inside. His hands pressed into the mattress on either side of her shoulders,his body held off of her by his arms as his hips continued to piston into hers.
“Beau,” she whimpered on a low whine, turning her head and pressing her cheek against the pillow. Her cheeks were flushed, and she was hot all over. “You’re going to make me come again.”
“Good,” came his gravelly response somewhere behind her. She felt his weight shift and then the fingers of his right hand were sliding into the hair at the nape of her neck, pulling tight. It arched her neck, and she bit her lower lip to keep from crying out, but not in pain. He knew just the right amount of pressure to apply to turn that bite of pain into pleasure. “We’re nowhere near two dozen yet, Val. Give it to me, sweetheart. I want to feel you come on my dick again.”
His fingers left her hair and slid down and around her throat, simultaneously tilting her head back and squeezing lightly. “Oh, fuck,” she moaned long and low a heartbeat before her mouth dropped open in a silent cry as she came.
He was pulling orgasms out of her like a goddamned magician. She was ruined.
