CHAPTER FIVE

Oliver

‘OH, NO, NO...NO.’ I check my watch behind her back. ‘You still have sixteen minutes of your time left.’ I hold her to my chest and turn my face into her mussed hair to inhale the scent of her shampoo. My brain battles the frantic rage of testosterone in my blood to make some coherent thoughts. What the hell has happened to my Neve? Was she always this hot, this sensual, provocative and demanding? I’ve been walking around with my eyes closed. For self-preservation. But how can I have missed so much for so long? Been so idiotically stupid?

Because she’s my friend and I was terrified I’d fuck it up. Because, unlike Neve, I’ve only had one relationship. As a teenager. Jane was a lot like Neve, except that she broke my heart. Then my father’s cynical take on women and love—and my own reckless behaviour—taught me to shut myself down to that kind of risk.

But I can do this—keep my friendship with Neve separate, sacrosanct, and enjoy the sex. Fuck, I gave her her first shared orgasm... And I still have sixteen minutes to touch and lick every gorgeous inch of her until she’s imprinted on my mind. I want to get up close and personal. I want to taste her and force her back into orgasm number two, now I know she’s had a rough deal from her exes. If I can reset the sexual imbalance she’s tolerated for way too long, the risk is worth taking.

I slide her languorous body from my lap and she collapses onto the bed, her face buried as she gifts me a vision of her sexy backside. My dick throbs, pushing at the front of my shorts in revenge for having to wait. But I’d walk around with blue balls for a week in order to show Neve the good time she’s missed out on.

I can’t resist touching her, though. My fingers trace her ribs and the tattoo of an infinity symbol she got for her twenty-first birthday. I’d held her hand, jealous as fuck of the dude inking her skin just to the side of one full, beautiful breast. Not that I’d fully seen them then. But, now I have, the delicious images will be scored on my memory for evermore. Although, somehow, I’ll have to try and forget the details once we return to being just friends...

Neve stirs, rolling onto her side and propping herself up on one elbow.

‘How did you do that?’ she asks, her flushed face full of genuine awe.

Pride builds in my chest. I may be related to a man-whore who sucks at commitment, but I’ve given her something those other supercilious dick boyfriends of hers couldn’t. I shrug, stroking her hip with my thumb. ‘Sex is easy. You just have to be honest about what works.’

I lie on the bed facing her, my head on my bent arm, and caress her buttock, filling my hand with her pale rounded cheek. ‘Tell me. What was the best part of what just happened?’

She huffs, rolling onto her stomach again to hide from my question. ‘You don’t need your head to grow any bigger.’

‘Come on, I’m serious. Tell me. There’s a reward for the best answer.’ We’ve always been playful with each other, shared a similar sense of humour. That I get to combine one of my favourite parts of our relationship with one of my favourite activities—sex—makes me feel more alive than ever, and I haven’t even come yet.

Then an idea occurs. ‘You think about your answer.’ I rise from the bed and march to her suitcase, retrieving a toy from the bag—a bright-pink dildo—while she buries her face in the pillow and grumbles about being so candid. But I need to know. I have plans.

I place the toy on the bed, out of her line of vision, kneel astride one of her legs and brace myself over her back. While she mumbles excuses into the pillow, I push her hair out of the way and kiss her freckled shoulders and the valley between her shoulder blades.

‘If you want to replicate an outcome,’ I say, my voice thick with lust, ‘you must analyse how you arrived there. Consider it an audit, if you like.’ All the while my mouth is occupied with her satiny skin and my questions, my throbbing dick is distracted.

‘Mmm,’ she moans, her breath catching. ‘It was all good.’

I can see she’s going to need a little encouragement. If she’s allowed herself to be short-changed by her exes, talking dirty probably doesn’t come naturally. ‘Was I too rough with your nipples?’ I slide my mouth down the bumps of her spine, learning new things about her, like her sensitive, ticklish spots.

‘God, no.’ She groans. ‘That was good. Perfect. I liked the nibbling and tweaking.’

‘See, that wasn’t so hard—this is what I want to hear.’

I press kisses in the small of her back and then kiss each cheek before pressing my teeth there with the barest hint of pressure. ‘And the biting? Too much?’ Oh, how I’d love to mark her, give her a hickey so she remembers this in the days to come every time she looks in the mirror.

‘Um...no!’ she squeaks, bucking her pelvis. ‘That was good too.’

I grip her hips and encourage her to roll over onto her back.

I look down at the woman I know so well, pride building in me that she trusts me enough to gift me this incredible privilege. Flushed and panting, looking at me as if I’m the only man on earth.

Not a womaniser with bad genes.

Need roars through my head. Why have I denied myself this possibility for so long, and how can I take full advantage of my luck before Neve wakes up to my true nature? Because not all my decisions have been as awesome as this one.

When I met her I was a monumental fuck-up, more like my father than I care to admit, and she was amazing, someone I knew I wanted in my life despite being out of her league. But I’m older now. More mature. I have no intention of losing her or allowing her to regret this.

But the clock is ticking.

‘So the nipple play was good.’ I scoot down the bed and lift one leg, bend her knee and press her ankle up to my lips. ‘What about the kissing?’

Her mouth hangs open, her breasts rising on every laboured breath. ‘That was fine. Oliver, do we have to talk?’

I swirl my tongue around her anklebone. ‘Oh, yes, I’d say the talking is essential for orgasm number two. I’m not sure I’m happy with just fine.’ My tongue laves up the curve of her calf to a sensitive spot behind her knee. ‘Mmm... I’ll have to try harder with the kissing.’

She’s panting now. ‘Okay. Good. The kissing was good. It definitely helped. But I don’t think I’ll be able to come again...’

I slide onto my stomach, shouldering her thighs open until I’m positioned exactly where I want to be. I press a kiss beneath her belly button, smiling up at her outraged but aroused expression. ‘Don’t make this even more exciting by issuing a challenge.’

Slowly, deliberately, I look down between her legs. Lust robs my breath. She’s completely bare, all that gorgeous pink pussy on display for me.

Neve whimpers and covers her face with her hand. ‘Oh...’

‘Don’t you hide from me,’ I say, tracing kisses and licks up her smooth inner thighs, while my stare jumps from her face to my new favourite view.

She lifts her head and glares. ‘Oliver...’ But the reprimand lacks conviction, her voice so strangled and needy.

‘Tell me,’ I say, sucking in the scent of her arousal until my dick starts to weep, ‘was two fingers enough? Is three too ambitious?’ I trace her opening with one feather-light fingertip.

She shakes her head, her bottom lip trapped under her teeth, her eyes wide, pleading. Her lips actually tremble.

Damn, she’s incredible.

‘No?’ I press a kiss to her mons, swirl my tongue there, avoiding her most sensitive areas until I’m certain she’s ready to beg...or demand.

‘I loved everything you did to me.’ She’s panting with need now, desperation hovering in her eyes. ‘Couldn’t you feel how hard I came?’ she whispers.

I grin; my Neve is warming up. ‘I could. Let’s see if you’re ready for another.’

Panic flares in her beautiful eyes, but there’s desire too. ‘I... I can’t.’

I grin, blow a stream of air over her exposed lips. ‘I think you can,’ I say and lower my mouth to her, sucking and tonguing her sweet flesh like I’m French-kissing her pussy.

She cries out, her thighs jerking and her head falling back between her shoulders. I part her with my thumbs and find her swollen clit, plump and ready.

‘Oliver...’ She says my name on a gasp that makes my blood pump harder because there’s reverence in her voice that makes me feel invincible somehow. Right now, I’m so much more than the sum of my parts. More than her commitment-phobic friend. More than a casual fuck. More than a man.

I’m everything she deserves in this single moment.

‘Why don’t you watch what I’m doing and direct proceedings?’ I suggest, my pulse hammering hard enough to deafen me. ‘That way, I’ll know what you like.’

Her huge eyes are round as she stares at me between her legs and then watches my mouth lave kiss after kiss to her pouty clit.

She’s addictive. Her scent is so arousing I’m worried I might come in my shorts. I ease my hips back to dampen the friction and flatten my tongue over the taut bundle of nerves that all my verbal preparation has swollen to a tight bud.

‘Yes...’ Neve hisses, grasping my head with both hands so she can rock her pelvis against my mouth.

I keep up the suction, searching the bed for the dildo with one hand. I see the moment she notices the toy, excitement flaring in her eyes. I look down, lining it up at her slick entrance, and then search her face for permission. Her nod and whimper is the green light I need. I ease the thick toy inside her, my dick throbbing as we both watch the shocking-pink shaft disappear between her lips.

‘Oliver,’ she pants, her thighs trembling at the invasion. ‘Suck me.’

I want to beat my chest in triumph at how perfect she is. Sweet, shy Neve has left the building. This Neve is greedy for orgasm number two. And I’ll give her anything. Do anything to make her happy. To watch her come again.

I obey, my mouth finding her once more, alternating sucks and flicks of my tongue with plunges of the dildo inside her, knowing all the while she’s watching.

This time her orgasm builds slowly. Her cries, her chanting my name over and over, and the jerks of her thighs, are all clues of the impending climax. Number two looks and sounds as good as the first. Neve’s pleasure is one of the best sights I’ve ever seen, as she shatters and collapses back onto the bed, spent.

Testosterone roars through me, my abstinence equally depleted. ‘Do you have any condoms?’ I toss away the toy and race out of my clinging shorts, which feel two sizes too small. Have I ever been this turned on? This hot for a woman? Is it just because I know it’s a one-time deal? A novelty? Forbidden? Or is it wonderful Neve and her addictive abandon?

Neve waves her hand in the direction of her wash bag on the nightstand and I rummage, my shaking fingers quickly locating my prize. I sheath myself and climb on top of her still spent body. She welcomes me, her kisses fast and frantic and her hands grabby, tugging on my shoulders and buttocks as I line myself up.

Part of me can’t believe I’m actually doing this—about to penetrate my beautiful Neve, a woman I’ve forced myself to ignore sexually for so long. But, just as her pleasure is precious to me, so is she. I’ll pay the price, make everything all right between us, if I can just have this one time.

With teeth gritted against the impending ecstasy, I sink forward into her tight warmth, my mind blank from all the reasons this is a terrible idea and I plunge home, thrust after thrust. Her cries and kisses urge me on. Sweat breaks out, stinging my eyes. But I don’t want it to be over so soon, even as animalistic instincts take hold of my hips. I brace my arms either side of her head, my thrusts rocking the bed into the wall. She feels amazing. She is amazing. Perfection.

‘Touch yourself. Your nipples. Your clit,’ I bite out, and she nods, whimpers and obeys, one hand delving between our hips and the other plucking at one red, swollen nub.

Her pale skin is marked from my mouth and my facial hair, the sign of possession I craved.

My climax builds at the base of my spine, fire boiling in my belly. But still I want her with me, coming around my cock the way she milked the toy and my fingers. I want everything she has now I’ve stepped across the line. I want her corrupted. Ruined for mediocre sex for ever. Not my sweet friend, but this sexy woman who’s ripped apart everything I thought I knew about her.

‘Are you close?’ I grit out, hips slamming into hers.

Miraculously she nods, her head thrown back as she wails, and we come together, angels singing, stars bursting and unicorns prancing.