Returned back to reality.
She shuddered. Didn’t want to return to her life, her job. It would all be so empty without Tyler.
God.
“Hey.” He cupped her cheek, his palm warm, his fingers streaking along her cheek. “What’s wrong?”
“I…” She didn’t know how to approach him with this, didn’t know how to blurt it out and just say it. She was a successful business owner who had no problem asking for what she wanted in her day-to-day life.
And yet she couldn’t ask for this. The one thing she wanted more than anything.
A real, solid chance with Tyler.
“I want you,” she finally whispered when he hadn’t said a word. She looked up, met his blazing blue gaze, and she saw it all. Passion and want, tumultuous emotions he probably didn’t know how to express either. Maybe, just maybe he felt the same way. He’d certainly been attentive the entire weekend. He’d been eager too, just as eager as she, maybe even more so.
There was something between them. If she would just be a realist, she could admit it. More than just a lusty weekend between old friends, this had potential. This had the chance to be something real.
First, she wanted to be with him. Experience him one more time without any emotional hang-ups or worry that he might reject her or turn her away.
“I want you too.” His touch became firmer, his fingers drifting down her cheek, along her jaw, across her lower lip. She parted her lips, her tongue darting out to lick his lingering finger and he groaned.
“Take me, Tyler,” she murmured, her hands tugging at his T-shirt. “Please.”
He whipped it off for her, tossing it over his shoulder. “You don’t need to ask twice.”
Their mouths crashed upon each other, lips fused, tongues dancing, hands wandering all over each other’s bodies. She didn’t need much foreplay—the entire weekend had been foreplay and she was constantly aroused. Right now she just needed him. Buried deep inside her, filling her, making her feel complete.
Such a cliché but so, so appropriate for the moment.
Clothes fell off their bodies with practiced ease until they both stood in a naked embrace. He held her breasts in his hands, his thumbs straining up to flick across her nipples and her knees weakened at the delicious ache his touch roused. He barely had to touch her and he brought her close to orgasm within seconds. It was that easy between them. That good.
“Come on, babe.” He grabbed her ass and hitched her up. She wrapped her legs about his waist as he carried her over to the couch. “I can’t stand this much longer.”
She knew the feeling. Her entire body trembled from wanting him, and he collapsed onto the couch, her sitting astride him, their faces so close. She carefully took off his glasses and set them on the end table. He smiled at her, the look on his face so tender, so sweet she almost burst into tears at the sudden emotion that threatened to overwhelm her.
“Sssh.” He pushed the hair away from her face. As if he knew what she was feeling, how scary it was. “You’re beautiful.”
His words touched her deep and she touched him as well, her fingers drifting across the strong firm line of his jaw. “So are you.”
They kissed, this one not as carnal but just as arousing. No, this was a sweet meeting of lips, a slow, almost torturous tangle of tongues. She gasped into his mouth, the corner of her eyes prickled with tears, and she leaned into him. Needing his strength, wanting him to absorb her and keep her forever.
His hands smoothed up and down her back, comforting her and sending sparks of sensation over her body at the same time. His cock rose between them, hard and seeking and damn it, she realized they didn’t have a condom.
Withdrawing from him, she swallowed hard, her accelerated breaths making it difficult for her to get the words out. “We—need a…”
“Condom,” he finished for her. He pointed toward the end table. “Open the little drawer.”
Julie bent to her left and tugged on the drawer pull to find two condom packets nestled within. Casting him a suspicious glance, she pulled one out and waved it at him. “Secret stash for all of your weekend rendezvous with various women?”
Jealousy rose within her, ugly and unwanted but there just the same. She was being foolish. She had no claim on this man, and she certainly shouldn’t be jealous over any of his previous encounters with other women. It was none of her business what he did prior to being with her.
The thought of him being with another woman after her was just too upsetting to even consider.
He started to laugh, caught one look at the expression on her face and he immediately stopped. “I snuck those in earlier when no one was in the room. I sprinkled a few throughout the house, to be honest. I wasn’t sure where we’d be when we could finally be together.”
Her heart actually expanded. She felt it. It welcomed him right on in and then closed up tight. As if never wanting to let him go. “Really?”
Tyler nodded slowly, his gaze never leaving hers. “Really.”