| |
Jessica dinged the little bell and leaned against the reception desk, weary from the longest, most frustrating, and happiest day of her life. Sed was getting their luggage out of the car, and she already missed having him beside her. She should probably get a grip, but that could wait until after their honeymoon was over.
The night clerk stepped slowly out of a back room and studied Jessica with wary brown eyes. “Can I help you, ma’am?”
Jessica cringed. She’d been married a mere twelve hours, and people were already calling her ma’am.
“My husband and I have a reservation. Jessica Chase.”
The clerk flicked a lock of jaw-length black hair behind one ear and began clicking on her computer keyboard, scanning the monitor before her. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have a reservation under that name.”
Jessica snapped her fingers. Her mom must have reserved the room under her married name. “I mean Lionheart. Try Jessica Lionheart.” Though she hadn’t yet changed her name on her credit card or driver’s license, she had taken his name as her own.
More keyboard clicking. The clerk shook her head. “No reservation under that name either.”
Jessica’s heart began to race. Surely her mom hadn’t fabricated her wedding gift to them. “Maybe it’s under Sed or Sedric Lionheart.”
The woman stood a little straighter. “Everyone has already checked in for the night, ma’am. It’s pretty late, you know.”
It was close to midnight, but it was still Jessica’s wedding night. She was tired and starting to get a bit testy. And the woman wasn’t even looking to see if the room was under Sed’s name, though Jessica supposed when she’d searched for Lionheart, his name would have popped up.
“What do you have available? I’d like to get to bed sometime tonight.”
“We’re at capacity. We’re always at capacity.” The woman lifted her nose. “This isn’t the kind of hotel you can just show up at, hoping a room is available.”
“My mother said she made reservations here weeks ago,” Jessica said. And Mom had been bragging about it ever since. This was the most expensive hotel in Malibu, and Mom had made sure Jessica had known how much the nightly rate was so that Jessica would have to continually thank her for her generosity.
“Is something wrong?” Sed asked.
He placed a hand on Jessica’s lower back, reminding her how damned tired she was. She hoped he wasn’t feeling too frisky. After the near-death experience on that otherwise romantic hot-air balloon ride, she wanted to curl up under the covers, wrap herself in Sed’s arms, and pass the fuck out.
“They don’t have a reservation for us,” Jessica said.
“Is this the right hotel?” Sed asked, glancing around the opulent lobby. He lifted both brows. “Your mother sprang for this joint?”
“I’m sure her husband is footing the bill.” It wasn’t as if her mother had worked a day in her life. Unless making men miserable until they divorced her was a career.
“It’s probably too late to find a different hotel.” Sed rubbed her back. “We’ll go home and sort it out tomorrow.”
“I’m not spending my wedding night at home.” She glared at the hotel clerk for ruining her night—though Jessica knew it wasn’t her fault—and pulled out her cellphone. She’d already had one major run-in with her mother that day. Mom had probably canceled their reservation out of spite. She dialed Mom’s number—not caring that she’d get yelled at for calling so late—but before Mom answered, Sed took the phone out of Jessica’s hand.
“I got this,” he said to her before saying into the phone, “Stella? Sorry to call so late, but Jessica and I just arrived at the hotel, and they don’t have a reservation in our name. You booked us a room at the Malibu Beach Inn, correct?”
Jessica was torn between being pissed that Sed was handling the situation without consulting her and grateful that she didn’t have to talk to the woman. She’d had enough mother-centered drama for one day, thank you very much.
“I see. What’s the address?” Sed gave Jessica a reassuring smile. “You emailed it to her? Gotcha. I don’t think she’s checked her email today.”
Why the fuck would she check her email? It was her wedding day. And though she’d wanted the entire day to go down without a snag—details planned and planned and planned to ensure a flawless day—they’d encountered more snags than a knitted sweater in a briar patch. This snafu with the hotel booking was just the icing on her fucked-up cake. But watching Sed handle their current dilemma with charm and far less crankiness than she could have hoped to muster reminded her that no matter how many hiccups they encountered today or any day, he was hers. She had the documents to prove it.
“Thanks, Stella. Have a nice evening.” His grin widened—both endearing dimples making an appearance—as he listened to whatever her mother was saying on the other end of the line. “Yes, I think she’s still upset with you, but I’m sure you’ll work it out. Give her a month or two to cool off.”
A month or two without having to deal with her mother? Now that was a wedding gift to adore. After Sed ended the call, he handed the phone back.
“She wanted to surprise you with some Airbnb she found,” Sed told her. “Apparently she sent you an email about it.”
“Oh God. What kind of rat-infested shack did she book for us?”
Jessica found the email in question buried between dozens of congratulatory messages. She took a steadying breath before opening the forwarded mail. The few pictures attached to the listing looked nice, and the place was right on the beach. Still, Jessica was hesitant to trust that her mother had come through for them. The woman didn’t make a habit of making Jessica’s life better.
Sed pressed up against her back and rested his chin on her shoulder so he could see her phone. “Doesn’t look rat infested.”
“They might be hiding in the walls.”
Sed kissed her temple. “Everything will turn out fine.”
She hated to admit how much she needed to hear those words.
“Even if we have to sleep in the car tonight,” he added.
Those words were less reassuring.
“You don’t really think we’re going to have to sleep in the car, do you?”
“We could always find a seedy hotel and rent a room for a few hours. I’m sure Eric could suggest a place.”
He winked, and she laughed, her crankiness evaporating. Turning away from the desk, she linked her arm through his, and they walked arm in arm through the upscale lobby.
“I didn’t want to stay at this dump anyway,” she said loudly. “I hear they have rats.”
Less than fifteen minutes later they were standing in front a modest-sized dark house. Jessica was using the flashlight feature on her smartphone to try to read the numbers on the lockbox so they could unlock the door.
Sed added the light of his phone, saying, “I guess they don’t leave the light on for guests here,” and Jessica was finally able to get the combination dialed in.
She was starting to wonder if they were breaking and entering. How in the hell had her mother scored this place at the last minute? Something had to be wrong with it. She pushed her concerns aside, trying to have faith that a day riddled with problem after problem was going to end on an up note.
“No lights,” she said. “Or traffic. I can hear the ocean.”
“We can hear the ocean from my place too,” Sed pointed out. “I mean, from our place.”
“No more thinking of our place this week, Sed. Or of work or the tour or any other worries. We agreed to leave all that behind.” Even if they were less than thirty miles from home.
“You’re right. I do need a break from everything but you.”
“If I don’t get some sleep soon, you’re going to need a break from me too.” She made a catty meow sound and followed it with a hiss.
“All things considered, you’re holding it together well.”
She was glad he was nice enough to lie. His concern made her feel better. She retrieved the key from the little lockbox and used it to open the door. After some fumbling in the dark, Sed found a light switch and flicked it.
Jessica’s breath caught. The place was gorgeous—decorated in soft grays and cool white. Beyond the small entryway and comfortable living room stood a patio door that drew her forward. Sed moved their luggage from the front stoop to just inside the door and followed her out to the back of the house. The moonlight was bright enough to reveal a neat yard with a small pool off to one side. Out past the perfectly tended grass, a wooden deck had been erected on a bluff, and beyond the deck she could see the inky shimmer of the moonlight-kissed ocean.
“Wow,” Sed said behind her. “Now, this is nice.”
Jessica grabbed his hand and tugged him behind her as she hurried across the grass to the deck. It was situated on a cliff high above a deserted beach.
“Which beach is this?” she asked, leaning over the railing and noticing that the beach angled back to the right of their lofty perch. To the left, a craggy finger of land jutted into the ocean. Waves crashed against giant rocks that had tumbled into the sea.
“Zuma, I think,” he said.
“Oh, Sed,” she said, turning to hug her hunky new husband. “It’s even better than the pictures. It’s perfect!” She couldn’t have asked for a more wonderful place to spend the first week of her marriage. How had her mother found the place? Jessica was going to have to thank her. Which meant she had to talk to her. But this was a generous gift, and she and Sed would enjoy their time there. Maybe her mom was turning over a new leaf, and they could finally have the mother-daughter relationship Jessica had always craved.
Sed huffed out a breath. “I was expecting something a little less . . .”
“Less what?”
“Expensive.”
Jessica squeezed him. “I’m sure Mom will be expecting lots of favors in return. Be prepared to have to hook her up with your friends.”
“She’s married.”
“That never stopped her in the past.”
“I do think she had a thing for Trey at the reception.”
Jessica laughed. “It’s a good thing he’s getting married next weekend. But if that doesn’t deter Mom, I think Reagan can take her in a fight.”
“We should have paid for this ourselves.” Sed leaned over the railing and took in the strip of beach below. “This place must have cost a fortune.”
“Just enjoy it,” she said. “We’ll be paying for it for years. Trust me.”
“If it will make you happy, I’ll let myself enjoy it. The view here is gorgeous. I can’t wait to see it in the daylight.”
“I don’t require any light to remember what the portable gorgeous view looks like.”
“Portable gorgeous view?”
“You.” She strained on tiptoe to kiss him.
As always, heat blossomed between them when they kissed, and she was no longer weary from the day. He awakened her body, stirred her soul, challenged her mind. There was no way she was heading for bed without getting her fill of him first.
“Let’s make our wedding night last until dawn,” she said.
He chuckled. “You have a lot of faith in me, babe.”
“I do.”
“Mmm. That’s my favorite phrase.” He kissed her again. “Remind me where I’ve heard it before.”
“At our wedding ceremony; a few seconds before a torrential downpour ruined my dress.”
“I think it was the subsequent beach sex that ruined your dress.”
“If it hadn’t rained, we wouldn’t have ventured to the beach at all.”
“Which is why the rain didn’t ruin the end of our wedding ceremony. It bettered it.”
She couldn’t argue. While the rain hadn’t been on her well-planned schedule, it had definitely made the moments after the ceremony memorable.
“We wouldn’t want you to ruin another dress today,” he said. “So we should probably take this off.”
Not probably. “Definitely,” she said.
Sed’s fingers moved to the back of her dress, lowering her zipper inch by inch. His touch felt molten against her slowly revealed flesh. She stepped away from him so that he could brush the straps of her dress from her shoulders; the fabric rustled as it dropped into a puddle at her feet. Sed’s mouth moved across her jaw, arousing her with soft, warm kisses and tender nibbles. When his teeth sank into her neck, her body jerked and a gasp of excitement escaped her.
She loved the feel of the ocean breeze against her bare skin and arched against Sed’s hard body, encouraging him to bare more of her to the wind as well as to his touch. To her husband’s touch.
She shivered. Sed was her husband.
Before she could lose herself to the happiness of that thought, he unclasped her bra, letting it fall to the decking at their feet. The breeze teased one taut nipple; his fingers warmed the other and sent her to a familiar place of rapture. Rational thought escaped her, and the exposure to the outside world heightened her excitement. They’d have to attempt a repeat performance during daylight hours, when someone from the beach could look up and see them. That element of potential discovery always added a thrill to their encounters. But tonight they were the only two people in their world, and she didn’t need an audience to fan her passion.
“I love you,” Sed murmured, his breath stirring her hair near her ear and sending shivers down her spine. “The moonlight makes your skin glow like alabaster.”
“I love you too,” she said, at a loss for pretty words and sentiments. She hoped he understood that even though she said those words to him often, the meaning behind them was never less profound.
“Show me how much,” he said, his voice a low, sexy growl.
When Sed performed with Sinners onstage, that voice made thousands of women wet, and Jessica knew how lucky she was to hear it while he filled her with his huge, thick cock. A cock, she decided, that needed a little encouragement to reach its full potential.
She slipped his shirt off over his head, taking a moment to feel the hard muscles of his broad chest and shoulders, and then lowered his shorts. She looked down, disappointed that it was too dark to fully appreciate his gorgeous cock. She could picture the details clearly, however. He was always thick and hard—veins straining against the darkened skin and a large head that always hit her in the perfect spot to bring her the most pleasure. She lowered to her knees before him, dragging his shorts down his legs as she went. He kicked off his flip-flops and his remaining clothes until he was as bare to the cool ocean breeze as she was.
Jessica held his shaft between her hands and kissed the tip with the worship she felt his cock deserved. She slid her tongue between her lips to trace chaotic patterns against his most sensitive skin, deciding he didn’t need much encouragement after all. He was already rock hard.
Sed threaded his strong fingers through her hair and cupped her head with improbable gentleness before rocking his hips forward and shifting his cock deep into her mouth. Not prepared for the unexpected invasion, she struggled not to gag. He groaned, fucking her mouth while she applied suction. His fingers fisted into her hair and the tenderness of before evaporated. His more aggressive side, which she tried to tame outside their sexual encounters and encouraged within them, emerged as his thrusts deepened. She sucked harder, hoping she wouldn’t require much air as she gave him what he craved.
Unexpectedly, he pulled free of her mouth and tugged her to her feet. He gripped her hips and set her on the cold metal deck railing. She yelped in protest, but the sudden chill evaporated when he stepped between her open thighs and rubbed his fingers along her center to test her readiness. She was hot. Wet. More than ready. He shifted his hand to his cock to guide himself inside her. Jessica groaned as he thrust deep, and she wrapped her arms and legs loosely around him to draw him closer. His hands gripped her ass as he took her hard and fast. Her cries of ecstasy were lost to the wind, mingling with the calls of the gulls.
“I can’t believe you’re finally mine,” he said close to her ear.
As always, the deep timbre of his voice reached deep inside her.
“I’ve been yours from the start,” she said, capturing his face between her palms. She wished only that she could see his eyes and his love for her shining in their expressive blue depths. “I was just too stubborn and stupid to admit it.”
“Don’t ever forget you’re mine,” he said, thrusting deep and holding her hips so he could claim that final inch.
Her breath caught as she pressed her heels into the backs of his legs—filled with him, surrounded by him, joined with him, and not just physically. “I’m sure you’ll remind me.”
He chuckled. “Every damn day, baby.”
He brought her to her peak, knowing exactly how to please her, and then scooped her off the railing and carried her toward the house. Each step drove him deeper inside her. She clung to his shoulders, head tilted back and bare breasts offered to the sky, the breeze, the night. He stopped in the middle of the immaculately tended yard and lowered her to the grass. She moaned in protest when he slipped free of her body but surrendered willingly to his mouth between her legs. As usual, he gave more than he took. Sed was a generous lover. He brought her to a second peak, and she knew him well enough to realize he’d continue giving all night if she didn’t take matters into her own hands—and mouth and pussy. After she gathered a few of her scattered senses, she sat up and pressed both hands against his chest, urging him onto his back. When she leaned over his lap, hair brushing his belly, he grabbed her by the hips and turned her so that he could delight her with his mouth as she did her best to remember to please him with her own.
God, he could make her come. And come. And come again. When she decided the poor man wasn’t ever going to claim his own release, she scrambled down his body, grabbed his cock, and pressed it inside her.
He groaned at the sudden change in sensation, and she worked her inner muscles around him as she rode him, smiling to herself when his toes curled in the moonlight. She leaned forward, still riding smoothly, bending his cock down to alter the spot where he felt her, and then tilted her pelvis in the opposite direction to rub him in a new way.
“Jess!” he called out, his fingertips sliding down the center of her back and drawing a shiver of delight from her body. “God, you feel good.”
“Not as good as you make me feel,” she said.
“Lie,” he growled. He sat up behind her, grabbing her breasts and pulling her down hard on his lap so she couldn’t move. “This needs to last until dawn, and you’re determined to make me come.”
“Yes, I am,” she said. “You don’t always have to fuck me like it will be our last time together.” Not that she was complaining, but it had to be hard on his body.
He pressed his face into the center of her back and rubbed his mouth against her spine. “But you never know.”
“I do know. I know we’ll be together and making love for the next fifty years.”
“I need at least eighty to get my fill of you.”
She laughed and covered his hands with hers, pressing his palms into her breasts. “I’m up for it.”
“I’d better start stockpiling Viagra.”
“Somehow, I don’t think you’ll need it.” She pried his hands from her body and elbowed him in the ribs. “Now will you lie back and take it like an obedient husband?”
“Yes, wife. Whatever makes you happy.”
He settled back on the grass, and she climbed off him to switch directions. She wanted to watch his face while she gave him pleasure. He had such expressive eyes. The way he looked at her always caught her around the heart. Her vision had adjusted to the low light outside, but most of his expression was lost to darkness.
As she guided him slowly and gently back inside her heat, his eyelashes fluttered and his lips parted. Once he stopped fighting his own pleasure, it didn’t take Jessica long to draw him to release. He gripped handfuls of grass as his back arched, and his entire body shuddered through the force of his climax.
“Mmm,” he said as the tension drained from his body. “If you weren’t already pregnant, that would have definitely knocked you up.”
She rolled her eyes at his macho bullshit and slid off him to curl against his side. She settled her head on his shoulder, and he stroked her hair idly with one hand.
“The stars all came to watch,” he said, and she turned her head to look up at the darkened sky.
She giggled. “My star came for sure.”
“He did. And he’ll be ready for more in about an hour.”
“An hour! Are you going to let me relax at all this week?”
“No, Mrs. Lionheart, I’m not.”
She grinned and snuggled closer, her arm tightening around his waist. “Glad to hear it, Mr. Lionheart.”