When I woke up the next morning—was it noon already?—a cart filled with food waited for me by the side of the bed. A large smile spread across my face. With half-lidded eyes, I scanned the room. No trace of Tucker anywhere. Did I dream of his presence? Or did he leave already? My heart hiccupped, as Dahlia would say. Dozens of knots coiled around my insides. I breathed out. For a silly reason I couldn't explain, I wished he were here. Snuggled up against me.
I turned to my side, whiffed the pillow next to me, his ocean-breeze scent filling my nostrils. Yes, Tucker slept here. So, why did he leave?
With no answer to my question forthcoming, I went to freshen up and get rid of the aftereffects of my alcohol binge. My hair was a web of knots, and I gathered it in a messy updo at the top of my head, not in the mood to comb it. I splashed cold water over my face, trying to wake myself up a little more. I looked like hell, but after the fun we had last night, it was a small price to pay. I glanced one last time at my reflection, fixed my nightshirt, only to find Tucker sitting on the mattress as I made it back to bed. In designer washed-out denims and a dress shirt, he appeared refreshed and ready to get on with his day. Did Tucker know what regular clothes were?
And what happened to his hangover? Right now, I doubted he was even a mere mortal.
I rubbed my heavy lids with the heels of my hands and plastered a smile on my face.
"Good morning, sweetheart. Hope you're hungry. Didn't know what you liked, so got you a little of everything. And black coffee. Just the way you like it.”
His dark eyes brightened the room.
"You noticed?" I asked, my voice still croaky from all the singing and cheering of last night.
Tucker nodded, his gaze fixated on mine.
I died right there.
I was wrong all along. I possessed no control. Tucker was the one having power over me. Always had been. More than I'd ever care to admit.
"Got a few hours on my hands before my flight back home. Thought we could spend this time together. Nick and Dahlia are with Jack at her parents' place. They already left. They asked me to tell you they'd be back in the morning to pick you up. But for now, it's just the two of us, Wilde. What do you wanna do? You're the Nashville expert here."
His grin, warm and mesmerizing, tipped something inside me.
I blinked. Once. Twice. Dozens of times.
Why couldn't I get out of his magnetic field? Why was I so perceptive to everything about him? His smell, his heat, his heartbeat.
All traces of my hangover disappeared.
I closed my eyes, trying to ease the drumming of my heart and to block Tucker out. Not working. He was all over me. He didn't have to touch me for me to feel him everywhere. I clenched my thighs together. The twirl of scorching desire pooling in my belly meant nothing.
It means nothing. It means nothing. It means nothing.
How many times did I have to repeat the words to believe them?
Tucker shot me a panty-melting grin.
Last night replayed like a loop in my head, no matter how bad I tried to lock it somewhere I'd have no access. My body vibrated with need.
He eyed me with a frown, and I stayed rooted to the spot, taking him in, the idea of playing tour guide for the day not enticing me at all right now.
I had better use of our time together.
Heat circulated from the top of my head to my toes. Tucker quirked a dark brow up, his gaze heavy, and I lost it.
Without second-guessing myself, I fisted the hem of my nightshirt and lifted it over my head before discarding it. His eyes rounded. His Adam's apple bobbed. The piece of croissant he held in his hand fell from his grip.
We stared at each other, neither of us saying anything.
His gaze set my flesh on fire. He studied me, unable to hide his approval. His pupils dilated. He traced the seam of his lips with his tongue. One hand enveloped his junk, and I followed the movement, the swell in his jeans unconcealed.
My mouth watered at the sight of him, aroused and not shying from it.
In that instant, I craved Tucker Philips, like I'd never craved anyone else before.
With confidence in my steps, I strode forward, pushed his firm chest with both hands, and straddled him, thrusting my naked breasts into his face.
His chocolate irises traveled the length of my upper body, leaving a trail of fire in their wake.
My pulse throbbed in my temples.
Lust dripped from Tucker's gaze, coiling around me.
I could bask in it. I wanted to soak it all up.
Nothing he said or did could stop me from achieving what I desired. This little game between us needed to go up in flames, burning us in its heat.
He leaned forward, admiring my breasts, and his warm breath tickled my skin, turning my nipples into stiff peaks. His hand moved to rest on my naked thighs, his fingers featherlight on my skin but enough to melt me into a puddle of need. Every cell in my body pulsed at the soft touch. My vagina was on high alert, dripping wet. I tilted my head back, moaning when his thumb pressed into my flesh and moved up, dangerously close to where I yearned for him the most.
His tongue toyed with one diamond tip, robbing me of any rational thinking. My body begged to be at his mercy.
Tucker molded one breast to his other palm. I trembled against him.
His finger pushed past the crotch of my soaked panties, spreading my arousal, and I thought I'd faint from his touch only.
"Fuck, Wilde," he said with a husky voice. "You're wet. Jesus, we can't do this. I promised—"
I returned his fiery gaze, bewitched by the intensity I noted there. The guy wore his desire like a second skin.
Before he could think it over, my tongue dived into his mouth, famished, craving the taste of him. Unapologetic. Our lust spread like a conflagration, and we were its willing hostages. It swallowed us whole, my body ravenous for his. And his hungry for mine.
Tucker's hands cupped my cheeks, and after hesitating for a beat, he deepened the kiss, battling my tongue and sucking on my lips.
Shivers worked through me. The air surrounding us thickened.
Tucker yelped when I bit his tongue and left indents on his bottom lip, but never pulled away.
My hands traveled over his clothed body, memorizing the ridges and planes, desperate to touch every inch of the skin I'd admired the night before.
His palms returned to my breasts, shaping them to his touch.
Tucker leaned back, breathless, his muscular hands on my shoulders keeping me at a safe distance.
"Stop. Wilde, we can't do this. I told our friends I'd stay away from you. My words are important to me. They mean something. Why are you always trying to get me into trouble? This is really a bad habit of yours."
I held his hands in mine, knitted my fingers through his, and brought them to my bare chest. I shuddered when his rough skin scraped my sensitive flesh. My back arched when his tongue teased one nipple and his teeth closed around it, tugging and twisting the hard tip. Pleasure and pain mixed together.
I writhed in his embrace, purring like a kitten in heat, hooked to the man kneading my breasts.
His dick hardened underneath me, and I rubbed my aching center over the bulge, raring to feel its fullness in my fist.
The rolling of my hips increased, and with one hand around me, Tucker erased any space between us, pressing me harder against his erection, his groans permeating the air.
"You kept your word," I cried out, about to come just from the overpowering friction. "They didn't ask anything from me." A loud cry passed the rim of my lips. Desire engulfed me. I had to focus just to hold a conversation. "I'm the one who initiated this. I'm not some delicate flower who requires protection. I'm my own woman. And I know what I want. Right now, it's you. Oh god, it's all of you." A painful gasp escaped my lips when the pad of his thumb pressed against my clit. Tucker drew circles over my bundle of electrified nerves, and I covered his hand with mine to increase the pressure. "Harder," I begged. My thoughts jumbled in my head, and my voice quivered. "See? It's all me. Oh yes. Don't stop." I swallowed, about to come undone but not ready to let go just yet. "Like that. Yes. You were right. I'm the one perverting you. Every single time. Faster. Fuck me. With your finger, your tongue, your dick. I don't care. Just do it."
"Jesus, sweetheart, you're burning me alive. A wildfire."
He shut his eyes, struggling to steady his shallow breathing.
My entire being pulsed, and I dug my fingernails into his shoulders to anchor myself to this world.
"Stop fighting this. I want you." I licked the corner of his lips. My voice dropped to a plea. "Show me how good you feel." I bit his earlobe, and his eyes sprang open, his mouth returning to mine and devouring my lips. My hand descended to his crotch, and I massaged him, enjoying how his dick throbbed against my palm. I rubbed him faster, eliciting another groan from him. Deeper. One that vibrated through me. "And you can't deny you want me too." His dick twitched in my fist. "See?"
Tucker leaned back, his pupils now fully dilated, his gaze dark and menacing. Gone was the amusement from his features. His tongue wet his lip, and I crashed my mouth on his, frantic with need.
We kissed like our lives depended on it. We blended together. Oil and flames.
With a strangled grip around his length, I robbed him of his common sense.
His hips jerked up. I increased my fondling.
I squeezed him tighter, relishing every growl and one-syllable word he uttered and every jolt of his sex in my grip.
With my hair whorled around his hand, Tucker pulled my head back, his teeth marking the skin of my throat and nibbling on the flesh of my collarbones.
I screamed my pleasure, the sensations he provided my feverish body exhilarating.
"Wilde, I'll go to hell for this.”
"Then I'll go with ya. We'll rock that place. Together. In the meantime, show me what I missed the other night." His tongue followed the column of my throat. "Come on, big guy, stop stalling and fuck me. I have all these scenarios filling my head. But only the real thing can help me determine which are fiction and which are reality. I can't live without knowing any longer."
He unbuttoned the top of his shirt, and craving to feel the heat of his skin on mine, I took control and peeled it off him. Outlining the ridges of his abs with my fingertips, my hungry tongue followed each caress. Every piece of him seemed as if it had been carved in stone. High cheekbones. Square jaw. Firm chest. Sculpted abs. The intensity of the desire coursing through me reached new heights. With the tip of my tongue, I tasted every inch of his exposed flesh.
"Stroke me bare, Wilde," he ordered through clenched teeth. "Fucking do it."
With not-so-steady fingers, I unbuckled his belt and unfastened his jeans.
"Hurry up. I'm about to explode if you don't release some tension.”
This bossy side of Tucker Philips revved me up.
His body tensed as I slipped my hand into his boxer briefs, fisting the heated part of him. I drooled at the sight as I freed him from the restraint of his clothes.
We both breathed out in sync. Lust sharpened his features. His face tautened as a new surge of need grew in him.
His shaft pulsated as I worked it from base to leaking tip.
"Faster," he urged me. "Jerk me off. Don't end me, though.”
"So big," I exclaimed, working him, relishing the steel rod underneath the velvet skin as my hand moved up and down his shaft.
"You've seen nothing yet. Wait until I'm buried inside you, pounding you hard. We'll see how deep you feel me. Then I'll fuck that dirty mouth of yours. And show you who's the boss now."
I bent forward to take him into my mouth when he wrenched me away from the taste of him. His glistening cock saluted me when I released it.
"Not yet, Wilde. I'm not done with you yet."
I batted my eyelashes. "Tuck. Please.”
"You begged for it. Now stand."
One of his hands grabbed a handful of my ass when I stood before him while the other ventured back between my thighs.
Demanding fingers pushed the crotch of my panties to the side in a rough flick that tore the seam. I gasped when a thick digit slid without hesitation between the folds drenched with my arousal.
I dissolved under his attentive caresses.
"What took you so long? Fuck me," I said. Still seated, Tucker hastened the pace, pushing two fingers inside my moist channel. He leaned forward, his teeth grazing my clit. "Yes. Yes." My hips rolled over his hand. I held his head in place, about to come from his coarse stubble rubbing over my bundle of nerves every time his mouth played me.
"This is what you want, sweetheart? Dirty? You want me to rub you raw with my finger and my dick, pound you hard until you can't walk a straight line?"
A tingling sensation rose all over my skin at the sound of his low tone and filthy words. I nodded, wondering how I'd resisted the pull between us until now.
Ruthless, Tucker moved to his feet, holding me against him, the addictive movements of his fingers never faltering. With two steps forward, he pushed me onto my back. Fire in his eyes, face gripped with need, desire sculpting all his features. He was no longer the man I knew. I held my breath as a thrill rose inside me.
"Think you can keep up?" he asked, challenge coating his words.
I nodded again. Faster this time. "Will you fuck me already, or are you waiting for me to do all the work?" I asked. "Come on, don't tease.”
"That dirty mouth again. I can't wait to fill it up. Jesus, I wanted to bend you over my rental yesterday and ram into you to shut you up. Because you drove me nuts."
"You should have. I prayed you'd bang me in that empty field. Because fighting with you over directions was hot."
His eyes darted to mine. He breathed out. The muscles of his jaw flexed. "You're something else. I can't wait to have my way with you. Now spread those legs wider; I need my fix."
I lost the use of my voice at the sight of the promises shadowing his eyes. My throat clogged with anticipation.
A scorching fervor ignited all over my bare skin when he kneeled on the mattress between my legs and ravaged my center with his tongue. Tremors started at the tip of my spine and crawled along each vertebra.
With measured movements, I rolled and pinched my hard nipples between my thumbs and forefingers, increasing the desire throbbing in me.
"God, you're hot," he said, panting. He stared at me, and seeing him between my thighs, his lower face glossy with my imminent release, broke me apart, then revived me.
Tucker's digits pressed deeper inside me, gliding back and forth and turning me into a blaze. Waves of unleashed pleasure built in my core.
A million unknown sensations rushed through my body.
Loud cries filled the suite when his mouth joined in and he sucked on my clit. He worked me until he transformed my body into a pile of molten lava. My insides seared. He wouldn't stop until I combusted to ashes.
My pelvis levitated from the bed, Tucker's intoxicating strokes the only thing keeping me grounded.
His tongue played my center, giving me no time to catch my breath.
My walls clenched around his fingers. I would detonate in no time.
Flames licked my insides. My hips thrust up to take more of his fingers in me.
His movements quickened, and stars appeared in my vision.
Tucker was right. We'd go to hell for this. Because right now, I knew it down to my bones that this wouldn't be the last time. It couldn't be. We were just starting, and already I knew I'd never stop longing for Tucker's fire.