“Fuck the others,” I growled, still pissed at the way they’d rushed to put the blame on Annabelle about Mieke. They had all tried to call and text me, but I wasn’t up for hearing their voices let alone a cheap-ass apology. Noah raised a brow at me but didn’t say anything as he silently continued to drink his beer.
“Is that why?” she murmured, as if trying not to be overheard. “Because of what happened the other night?”
“No, Nat. This has nothing to do with them.” And it didn’t. The decisions I’d made earlier that day had nothing to do with my bandmates. “This is just something I need to do. For myself and only myself. Fuck everything else.”
There was a long pause on Natalie’s end and I could almost see the wheels turning in her beautiful head. Blowing out a tired-sounding sigh, she started grumbling to herself. “Fine. I’ll take care of this. I don’t want to have to be the one to tell Em, though.”
“So don’t. I’ll tell her.” At this point I wasn’t scared of Emmie Armstrong… Okay, I wasn’t as scared of her. That fierce little redhead would always scare me a little. I’d rather face a raging Wroth than her stormy green eyes any day.
“Good luck with that,” Natalie muttered half under her breath before her voice rose up a little louder. “Did you hear? Of course you did. You’re out there with Annabelle…pregnancy brain… whatever.” I didn’t try to sort out what she was saying. In the last few weeks I’d realized that pregnant Natalie spoke to herself. A lot. It was better to just go with it. “Emmie and Annabelle are official partners as of an hour ago. Hopefully my life is about to get a whole hell of a lot easier.”
I blinked, thinking I couldn’t have just heard her right. I hadn’t slept in more than twenty-four hours, so my mind must have been playing tricks on me. “What did you say?”
Natalie repeated herself and I dropped my bottle of beer on the table, hard. Annabelle hadn’t breathed a word about going into business with Emmie. She hadn’t mentioned anything about any partnership. Fuck, I hadn’t even seen her since she’d made pancakes for Mieke and me that morning and then rushed out the door for a meeting she’d claimed was important.
The whole time I’d been making plans for my future, she’d been making some of her own. I gritted my teeth, knowing I had no right to be upset that she’d made a huge decision like that without talking to me first. Didn’t mean it didn’t sting like hell.
“I’ll talk to you later, Nat.”
“But—”
“I have to go.” I tried not to snap at her, but it came out harsh anyway.
“Damn it, Z—” was the last thing I heard before I hit disconnect and stood.
“Problems?” Noah asked with a grin.
I shrugged, swallowed the rest of my second beer—or was it my third?—and headed for the door. “I’ll see you later.”
“Yeah, sure. If my sister keeps you around that long,” Noah called after me, sounding way too amused with himself. I flipped him the finger without pausing as I left the man cave. I didn’t go through the kitchen to say goodbye to Chelsea, just left through the back door and crossed the yard to Annabelle’s back patio.
Inside the house, I called out for her, not even sure if she was home yet or not. “Just a sec,” she called back from upstairs and I stomped my way up to her bedroom.
The door to her room wasn’t completely closed and I pushed it open to find her standing by her open closet, pulling a baggy T-shirt over her head. Yoga pants replaced the skirt she’d been wearing the last time I’d seen her. Turning to face me, she put a smile on her face, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Chelsea texted me saying you’ve been hanging out with Noah.”
I didn’t respond, too busy taking in the sight of her in comfortable clothes and her face washed free of any makeup. Fuck, she was so damn beautiful—even more now than she had been seventeen years ago. How had I been so stupid as to walk away from her and the life we could have had together?
Pulling the shirt completely over her hips, Annabelle walked toward me. I didn’t move as she tried to step around me. Lifting her brows at me, she started to push past me but I reached out, catching her wrist and pulling her against me. Hard.
Blue eyes widened as she lifted them to meet mine. “What are you—?”
I swallowed the rest of her question as I covered her lips with my own. For a second Annabelle went completely still against me, but I continued to kiss her, drinking in my fill of the sweet taste of her mouth. How had I forgotten how delicious she tasted?
My tongue slipped out, teasing her bottom lip and making her open her mouth for me. Taking advantage, I dove deep, exploring her mouth the way I’d been aching to from the moment I’d seen her again. With a small gasp, Annabelle melted against me. Her arms wrapped around my neck, her soft fingers thrusting into my hair and pulling my head down farther as she kissed me back.
Groaning at how amazing she tasted and felt in my arms, I wrapped my arms around her waist and lifted her several inches off the ground. Using my foot to close the door, I carried her to the bed and dropped her on the edge before pushing her back, never once breaking my lips away from her own. Lying on top of her, I could feel every shiver, every tremble of her body as she arched into me, wanting every caress of my seeking hands—as greedy for more of my touch as I was to relearn every angle of her amazing body.
Finding her breasts, I sucked in a deep breath through my nose when I realized that she was braless under that baggy T-shirt she wore. I kneaded each fleshy globe before finding her nipples, already diamond-hard and begging for my attention. Breaking the kiss, I pulled her shirt up to expose her full, tight tits with the puckered nipples. Unable to control the growl that escaped my throat, I sucked first one nipple into my mouth before turning the same attention to the other.
Annabelle’s fingers tightened in my hair, holding me against her as her lower body pushed up against me. I could feel the heat of her scalding pussy even through her yoga pants and my jeans. My dick flexed against my zipper, pleading to be set free and allowed entrance into the hot little body withering under me.
Still sucking on one ripe nipple, my hands reached for the top of her yoga pants and started tugging them down. As soon as I’d exposed her pussy, the scent of her desire lifted, filling my nose and making my own desire burn hotter. Pulling away, I muttered a vicious curse as I trailed kisses down her flat stomach to her drenched pussy. Shoving the damn yoga pants out of my way, I heard a ripping noise as I finally got them completely off her just as my tongue found her delicious pussy lips.
The last time I’d tasted this pussy, it had been sweet as honey. Now, it was pure nirvana. I loved the taste of her on my tongue, her cream flooding down my throat and overflowing, washing my face in her essence.
Her hips came completely off the bed as she ground her pussy against my face, offering me all of her juices in a meal I was starving for. “Oh, God. Oh, God,” she whimpered as I thrust two fingers into her tightness.
The extent of her tightness surprised me. It felt just as tight as it had when I’d first made love to her seventeen years ago. Mentally shaking my head, I knew she couldn’t still be that tight. There must have been other men who had gotten to taste…
I quickly put up a mental wall to stop that particular thought from continuing. No way was I going to be able to handle thinking of her with some other jerk-off. The thought of some faceless man taking what I’d given up enraged me. Not wanting to go down that road, I laved my tongue over her pulsing clit before sucking it deep, nipping at the little bundle of nerves with my teeth as she convulsed under me. With her pussy walls contracting, trying to suck my two fingers deeper, I lifted my eyes to watch her come apart for me.
As she slowly came down from the rush of the release I’d given her, I stood and pushed my jeans down my hips. Too far gone to stop and think about protection, I thrust into her still convulsing pussy. Blue eyes snapped open and a mixture of pain and pleasure crossed her face, telling me that maybe I should have questioned her tightness after all.