Chapter 22: Vanessa

Would I ever find a man to declare his love for me like Travis had for Jessica? Fresh tears spilled down my cheeks as parts of Travis’s wedding vows echoed in my mind: “I never knew what I was missing until I met you. You filled a hole I never knew I had.”

My life was falling apart, and the one thing I wanted above all else was Connor. Sure. I had him for now. Temporarily. But what would happen in three days when I was set to leave? Would he ask me to stay? Would he fight for me? I doubted it, and that doubt felt like a rusty stake in my gut. Three years ago, when I’d told him I’d had a crush on him, I’d been hoping he would’ve declared his love for me—that he would’ve told me he’d felt the same for just as long as I had. I hadn’t gotten a declaration of love back then, and I knew I wouldn’t get one now.

“Damn wedding is making me crazy,” I grumbled as I drew a shaky breath, wiped my eyes, and reapplied my make-up.

I came out of the bathroom to find Connor waiting, leaning up against the bar, looking like a real-life Adonis in his black tuxedo and shiny shoes. What he did to jeans was sinful, but what he did to that tuxedo was a Class A felony. Heat crept up my body, and I had to stop myself from fanning my face with my hand.

A slow seductive smile curved his lips when he saw me. He straightened and strolled toward me with a confident, sexy gait. My heart rate skyrocketed, and the inferno that had been slowly burning inside of me all day exploded. I prayed my tears wouldn’t explode like my libido just had.

Connor caressed my cheek, running his fingers down to my chin, which he grasped between his thumb and forefinger and titled up. “You’ve been crying?”

I shrugged. “You know how it is,” I said with trembling lips and a nervous laugh. “Girls cry at weddings. It’s what we do.” I bit my cheek to stop the flow of tears.

He leaned down and gave me a quick, tender, reassuring kiss. I wanted to melt into him, to become a part of him so I’d never have to leave him.

“Come on,” he said, taking my hand and leading me outside, away from the crowd.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Getting some fresh air,” he said like it was a no-brainer. What he didn’t know was that when he was around, there wasn’t enough oxygen on the planet to help me breathe properly.

I followed him down a paved path that ended at a small gazebo near the ocean. Lights hung around the outside of the railing and from the ceiling inside. The reflection of the moon on the water danced with the lights, making the gazebo look like something from a fairytale. I sucked in a breath as Connor’s fingers grazed across my bare back before they curled around my stomach, pulling me back against his hard chest.

“Have I told you how amazing you look tonight?” he said softly.

I covered his hands with mine and relaxed into his embrace. “Thank you.”

“Do you think you’ll ever do this?”

“Do what? Get married? Maybe someday. If the right guy were to ask me.” I hoped he couldn’t feel my heart banging in my chest or the expectation in my voice.

“Jess is convinced that guy is Nathan.” There was an edge to his voice.

“Travis’s brother?” I tried to turn and look at him, but he held me tight.

“Don’t,” he whispered. “Just let me hold you like this for a while okay?”

“Okay.” As if I’d tell him no. His arms are where I belonged. I knew that. Did he?

“Jessica wants you to marry Nathan so you’ll be her sister-in-law,” Connor said, annoyance and exasperation mixing with his words.

“Nathan seems nice enough, but he’s really not my type.”

“That’s what I told her.”

“What else did you tell her?”

He shrugged. “That I could just marry you and the outcome would be the same.”

Breathing became impossible. The gazebo started to spin around me. Had Connor really told his sister that he’d marry me? Even though it was a far cry from a marriage proposal, it was more than I could’ve hoped for.

“She laughed at me,” he said, brushing his lips across the back of my neck. “She said I wasn’t your type.” He dragged his mouth up the side of my neck and planted tiny, searing kisses behind my ear.

My eyelids fluttered closed, and I tilted my head to the side.

“And that we have nothing in common.” He caught my earlobe between his teeth and gently tugged at it.

I moaned. His slow seduction was driving me crazy.

“I’m really going to enjoy taking this dress off you later,” he said, running his hands up my stomach and around my ribcage.

His voice was a delicious sensual promise that had desire pooling between my thighs. Good God, how did he do that to me with just his voice? “Why wait until later?”

He spun me around, pressed his mouth possessively over mine, and my lips parted for him, welcoming him, savoring him. When his lips finally released mine, I noticed his eyes had gotten darker, wolfish with hunger. I smiled knowing that the intensity of his gaze matched my own. He ran his thumb along my bottom lip, making my insides clench.

Connor hugged me to him, lifted me, and set me on the edge of the railing. His hands engulfed my knees and slid over my thighs, so slowly it was torturous. Our gazes locked and my breath hitched. I didn’t have to ask what he was doing. Bunching my dress around my waist and stepping between my legs was my answer. Perspiration trickled between my breasts and an increasing dampness seeped into my panties.

“I need you, Vanessa. I need to feel you, be inside of you.” In one smooth movement he unzipped his pants, pulled my panties to the side, and entered me.

“Yes,” I gasped, hooked the heels of my feet through the railing, and spread my thighs open for him. My back arched, pressing my body closer to him. It was an invitation for him to feel more of me, all of me. His hands circled my back, and he held me so I wouldn’t topple backward off the railing.

“I can’t get enough of you,” Connor said and raked his teeth down my throat. “You feel like heaven, baby. Pure fucking heaven.”

I threaded my fingers in his hair and held onto him as he fucked me. My hips were his slave, surging forward to meet his, thrust for thrust. “I need more, Connor.” He tore his lips from my cleavage and planted them on my mouth. It still wasn’t enough. I closed my eyes and let him push me to the edge of physical bliss.

“Tell me,” he demanded in a rough, sexually charged voice. “Tell me what you need, sweetheart, and I’ll give it you.”

My mind screamed at me, and my voice failed. I need you! All of you. Forever.

“Open your eyes, Vanessa. I want to see them when you come.”

I slowly lifted my heavy lids and focused on his hazel eyes. They sparked with desire and longing and something else I couldn’t describe. Despite his explicit words, and the frenzied way he fucked me, there was something different about it this time. There was more passion to his words and his movements.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said, tangling one of his hands in my hair, holding my head still while stared into my eyes.

His words were my undoing. My pussy squeezed around his growing cock, wanting more even though I didn’t think I could handle anymore. His name fell from my lips as a breathless chant.

“That’s it, baby. Come with me.”

Amidst a flurry of kisses and throaty moans, I came apart in Connor’s arms, bucking against him. “Yes,” I hissed.

Connor’s hand was still in my hair, his forehead resting on my shoulder, and I heard him inhale deeply. I closed my eyes and simply let myself feel him, so solid and warm, his breathing becoming more even with each passing moment. I wanted to hold him like this forever. I wanted him to claim me as his. Dear God, why couldn’t he just love me? Tears pricked my eyes again, and I knew before I even tried that I wouldn’t be able to stop them.

He gave me a slow, passion-filled kiss, then eased out of me and helped me down from the railing. “You’re crying again.”

“Yes,” I said, fixing my panties and smoothing my dress over my hips. I sniffed and wiped my tears. “I guess the romanticism of the entire night is just getting to me.” That was a lie. The wedding wasn’t the reason I was crying. It was my unflinching need to have Connor want me and love me.

He zipped his pants. “Stay with me tonight, Vanessa.”

“What?” In the few days we’d been having sex neither of us had spent the night with the other. Considering I demanded no strings attached, I assumed sleeping in the same bed all night was off limits. But oh, how I wanted to.

“Spend the night with me,” he repeated.

“Yes.”

He brought my knuckles to his lips, gave them a soft kiss, then laced our fingers together. “Are you okay?”

I nodded.

“Good. We’d better get back before Jess notices were MIA.”

* * *

I was sitting on the bed when Connor came strolling into the bedroom with his bowtie untied, hanging loosely around his neck, and the first few buttons of his shirt undone, exposing his tanned, svelte chest. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on him.

“There are two things I want to do tonight, Vanessa,” he said, handing me a glass of champagne he’d swiped from the wedding.

“And those are?” The twinkle in his eyes excited me. Tonight, I’d seen a side of Connor I’d never seen before, and I liked it.

“First, I want to take that dress off you. Slowly.” He leaned over and kissed the side of my neck.

Heat flushed my face, and a shiver tickled my spine.

“Second, I want to kiss every inch of your body.”

Every inch? Yes, please.

“Stand up.” Connor set our glasses on the nightstand, and I stood. “Turn around.” I turned so my back was to him.

He ran his finger down my back, and I trembled. His lips were on my neck again, his breath hot against my tingling skin. I closed my eyes, tilted my head, and savored every touch he gave me, knowing we only had a couple more days left to be together. He flattened his palms on my wrists and dragged his hands up my arms and across my shoulders. Tiny, hot kisses trailed from his lips to the nape of my neck, down my back, and up again where he undid the clasp of my dress. I sucked in a breath when the cool air hit my breasts.

“Oh God,” I groaned when his hands cupped my breasts, his fingers gently twisting my nipples into painfully hard peaks that cried for more.

“You like it when I play with your nipples, don’t you?” Connor kissed the crook of my neck and shoulder, first one side then the other.

All I could do was lick my lips and nod. He had said he wanted to kiss every inch of my body, but damn, the slow, methodical pace he used was killing me. I needed all of him right now. Fast, hot, and hard.

“And when I do this.” He spun me around to face him, taking my nipple into his mouth, swirling his tongue around it, drawing it out with his teeth, and then sucking on it.

I put my hands on his shoulders to steady myself as a clash of pleasure and pain ripped through my body, tearing his name from deep within my throat. “This is torture, Connor,” I whined.

He chuckled, a low, rumbling sound that caressed my ears. “Now you know what it’s like for me every time I’m near you.”

“So, it’s torture being near me?” I asked, careful to keep my smile hidden.

“It is when I can’t touch you,” he said, taking my face into his hands. “Or kiss you.” His mouth slanted over mine, claiming me in a slow, mind-numbing kiss.

I decided very quickly that I absolutely, hands down, loved this side of Connor. He might not be declaring his love for me, but he was doing his best to make me feel loved. My fingers worked the buttons of his shirt—or tried anyway.

Connor gathered my hands into his and stopped me. “Uh-uh. I promise to let you do whatever you want to me after, but right now, it’s my turn.”

“I can’t take much more of this. I need to touch you, Connor, to feel you inside of me.”

“You will,” he whispered, putting his hands on my hips and tugging at my dress. It fell to the floor, leaving me in just my panties and shoes. Connor raked his gaze over my body, a faint smile playing on his face. “Fuck me shoes, Vanessa?”

I glanced down at my shoes—silver stiletto heels—then back up at Connor. “I was trying to make a statement.”

“Consider your message received loud and clear.”

I laughed at the seriousness of his voice, at the undiluted hunger I saw in his eyes.

“I think I’m going to leave them on,” he said, scooping me up into his arms and laying me on the bed.

Hands on either side of my head, Connor leaned down and kissed me. He started at my lips and worked down my body, lingering on my breasts while he slipped my panties off. I sucked in a breath at the feel of his mouth near my clit. My fingers clutched the bedspread, and my hips jerked off the bed when he licked at the swollen nub.

“Do you know how long I’ve wanted to do this? To taste you, to make you come with just my tongue?”

His tongue plunged into my pussy, once, twice, three times, then up the sensitive folds and around my clit. I fucked his face without shame. I didn’t care. It was too good.

“Mmm, Vanessa, you taste so sweet.” He worked his tongue on my clit with precision, skillfully drawing the orgasm from my body. “That’s it, sweetheart. Let it go. Let me taste all of you.”

Breathing turned to short, rapid bursts of moans. My heels dug into the bed as I tightened my thighs around his head—I couldn’t help it—and I succumbed to him, to the orgasm that threatened to drain every ounce of energy from me. I let my hips fall back to the bed and shuddered as he eased his mouth away. My entire body throbbed for him. “Connor.”

“Hmm?” he said, kissing his way back up my body. I threaded my fingers in his hair and pulled his face to me. His gaze locked with mine. “I want you to taste yourself, Vanessa. Taste how good you are. How sweet,” he said, slipping his tongue into my mouth.

Tasting myself on Connor’s lips seemed wrong, yet it was so damn erotic and kinky it made me want him even more—if that were possible. “Now, Connor, please. No more teasing.”

“Oh, my sweet Vanessa.” He took my hands, matched his palms to mine, threading our fingers, and pressed them above my head. His mouth slanted over my lips, burning my tongue with the sheer desire he poured into that single kiss. “Open your legs for me, sweetheart. Let me feel you.”

No sooner than I spread my legs, I felt the engorged head of his cock push into me, and I cried his name on a strangled breath. I looked into his eyes as he withdrew, slid in deep, and withdrew again. His teeth were clenched, and it appeared as though he was trying to hold back—to delay his orgasm, to hide a piece of himself from me. A deep, slow thrust of his cock elicited a torn cry from my throat. “More—”

“I’m trying to take this slow, and you’re making it impossible.”

“Maybe I don’t want it slow,” I whispered against his lips.

“Too bad,” he said, kissing me hard. “Let me make love to you just this once, Vanessa.”

He could make love to me whenever he wanted. Several, slow, controlled pushes of his hips had my orgasm coiling inside of me, my thighs gripping his, and my pussy straining to keep him inside of me. Connor released my hands and placed one of his on my waist, holding me tighter to him as I came. It was glorious being in Connor’s arms. It was amazing feeling his muttered curses and ragged breathing near my ear as he came inside of me. I clung to him as if my life depended on it for as long as he let me.

“God I could stay here forever, just like this forever,” Connor said.

My heart raced. Forever with Connor? It was my deepest, darkest fantasy. I stroked my fingers along his arm and down his back, and he trembled beneath my touch. I smiled with satisfaction. It was a wicked power trip to know I could affect him the same way he affected me. If only I could get him to love me as much as I loved him.