The next instant, his fingers slipped beneath the edge of her panties. He tore them aside with a single, practiced motion, and then he was inside her, two fingers, then three, filling her.Her inner walls clenched around him. He curled the tips of his fingers and pulsed in just the right spot he knew would drive her crazy. He continued his ministrations until she was shaking, whimpering against his mouth, and clutching at his shoulders.
While her inner muscles were still spasming, he withdrew his hand, lifted her by the hips, and she wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. He pushed his boxer shorts and pants down and lined up his cock against her slick entrance, and with one slow, inexorable thrust, he filled her to the hilt. She choked on a sound, half whimper, half sob, and he swallowed it in a kiss. His hand clamped at her nape, the other palming her breast through the thin fabric of her dress. He rolled her nipple between thumb and finger, pinched, and twisted, and she shattered against him, gasping his name into the dark.
He moved inside her, slow at first, then hard, then harder, the rhythm desperate, frantic. Their bodies collided, flesh against flesh, the slap and slide of sweat and skin filling the air, drowning out the faint sounds of the party beyond the walls of their closet. He kissed her shoulder, her neck, and the soft spot behind her ear. She clawed at his back, raked her nails down his spine, dug in her heels to bring him deeper, deeper, her inner walls pulsing around him.
As he drove into her completely over and over again, he buried his face in her neck, inhaled the scent of her, and whispered against her skin, “I love you.”
The words seemed to hover, suspended, the world paused for a single heartbeat. She froze, her body locked around him. He felt her tense, her breath catch, and her hands go slack for a split second.
Niko hadn’t meant to say it, not like that, not in this place, not while he was fucking her in a storage closet at a fundraiser. He felt like an asshole, but the truth was out, and he couldn’ttake it back. It was as if the words had been hiding, waiting, and now they spilled into the world, raw and irretractable.
He lifted his head and pressed his forehead to hers, panting, and tried to apologize, but it came out as a strangled groan. “I’m sorry.”
Tiana shook her head, her eyes wide and too bright. “No, I’m—” Her voice broke, and she tried again. “You don’t have to say it. I know this isn’t—” She trailed off, closed her eyes, and pressed her lips together.
Fuck, that wasn’t what he meant. His cock was pulsing wildly inside of her, not understanding what this intermission was for, demanding he come now and explain later, but that was not going to happen.
He gently cupped her face in his hand, tilting her head up, forcing her to look at him, to see the truth in his eyes. “I wasn’t apologizing because I didn’t mean it.” His voice was rough, barely a whisper. “I was apologizing because this is a shitty place to tell the woman I love, the woman I want to marry, the woman I want to grow old with, fuck, the woman I want to have kids and grandkids and great-grandkids with, that I love her, for the first time, in a storage closet.”
Fear. That was what he saw in her eyes as they searched his. She was uncertain, trying to find the catch, the punchline, the reason not to believe him. She could look all she wanted, but there was nothing but honesty, stripped bare and offered up with his whole heart.
Finally, she released a shaky exhale, and she kissed him, slow and tender.
It wasn’t a declaration of love, but he’d take it.
Niko was so overwhelmed by the rush of emotion that he’d finally told Tiana how he felt that his muscles trembled with the effort of holding her up. He gripped her tighter, pressed into her, and moved in a rhythm that was no longer franticbut purposeful, reverent even. His mouth worshipped her skin, trailing soft kisses down her neck, her collarbone, and the rise of her breast. He tugged the straps of her dress down and groaned at the sight of her, perfect and bare, without a bra. He licked and sucked, his lips sealing around her nipple, drawing it into his mouth in long, slow pulls, and she arched into him, offering herself up to be devoured.
The pleasure built, slow at first, then faster, a crescendo of sensation that threatened to tear them both apart. Niko angled his hips, shifting her weight, and found the spot inside her that made her whimper, made her clutch him, and made her beg for more. He gave it to her, every ounce of strength and longing and love, until the pressure in his own body coiled tight, his balls drawing up, the need to come an actual physical ache.
Tiana’s hands fisted in his hair, pulling him to her mouth, biting his bottom lip as she came apart. Her orgasm hit her in waves, shuddering through her from the inside out, and she clung to him like he was the only thing tethering her to the world. He felt it, the way she squeezed him, the way her body trembled, and he let himself go, allowed the pleasure to rip through him, raw and devastating. He pumped into her once, twice, and then he was gone, exploding inside her, all of the tension of the past weeks evaporating in pulsing bursts of pleasure.
He held her, braced her, as their bodies came down from the high, breathless and shaking in the musty half-light of the closet. The air was thick with the scent of sex and lemon cleaner and the knowledge that nothing between them would ever be the same.
30
“Thanks for coming.”Tiana said goodbye to her last student and then immediately checked her numbers for her livestream.
She still couldn’t believe how much money she’d been leaving on the table. She’d always had a plan to do some sort of subscription-based livestream. Jessica Bass James of Dance2Fit was someone she herself took online classes from, but she’d just never gotten around to setting it up for herself.
That’s before you had a team,you’re not alone anymore. A little voice that sounded a lot like Pops piped up in her head.
It was true. Niko wasn’t just Niko. Niko was a package deal. He came with his twin brother, AJ, who had been the brains behind the setup, and his sister, Frankie, who had handled the legal side of things and run the admin of the studio for an entire week. Not to mention Liam, who made house calls Tiana didn’t remember. AJ’s mom had sent care packages, including romance novels for her to read while she recovered, not that she’d done much lying around. Then there were his friends, like world-renowned photographer Zion Ash and Oscar winner Shayne Fox, who had taught her classes because she’d be playinga yoga teacher in her next movie and wanted to immerse herself in the research.
In fairness, Tiana knew Shayne as well as Niko did, but sheneverwould have askedanyonefor help if Niko hadn’t been around. She would have just closed the studio, which would have been a loss of income, which would have postponed or perhaps cancelled Pop’s surgery altogether. No. She wouldn’t have let that happen. That would have been a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency situation that she would have absolutely used Brock’s money for. But thankfully, she hadn’t had to because Niko was there to save the day. Not all heroes wear capes. Although, the thought of Niko in a cape did something to her. And maybe a mask, too. Yes, a cape and a mask. She imagined him coming into the room, his black cape trailing behind him, his dark stare barely recognizable through the holes in theEyes Wide Shutstyle role-play mask.
She wasn’t sure where this new freaky side of hers had come from, but she wasn’t mad at it. It was the first time she’d ever felt adventurous and safe enough to vocalize her feelings about that adventure. She still couldn’t believe what she’d done at the fundraiser. First the table, then the storage closet. Last night was…
Then there was the declaration. I love you. It kept playing over and over in her head. When they got home, he had a lot of other things to share. Things that Pops had told him about her, apparently. She wasn’t sure how she felt about any of it.
It was a lot. Too much. Or maybe she was just broken.
She grabbed her tote from beneath the counter and locked up the shop. Before she went home, she wanted to stop by the hair salon. Tiana wanted to know what was going on with her friend and Deacon St. Claire. She hoped her friend was ready to talk about it, if not, she’d at least tell her that she would be there when she was ready.
On the short walk down Main Street to The Beauty Spot, Tiana’s mind was spinning with all the things Niko had said to her in that storage closet. They’d gone home from the fundraiser, and he’d doubled down on the sweet nothings he’d professed. He’d said he loved her, really loved her. She would have thought that was insane, that there was absolutely no way he could possibly bein lovewith her, but the truth was, she felt the same way about him.
She hadn’t told him that, obviously. Or maybe not so obviously. Feelings were not easy for her. More than feelings, trust, trust was what she really battled with. Trust took time. Time was not something they’d had on their side.
So why was there a little voice in the back of her head saying, “It doesn’t matter how long you’ve known him, he’s the one. Go for it. Go all in. Put your cards on the table.” And whatever other poker or card metaphor there was for gambling with her heart and her life.
