Empty.
She tugged on his hair, and he pulled back from her mouth. “You have about thirty seconds to get in me or I swear—”
He barely even needed ten.
In a flash, he was up and kneeling between her spread thighs, reaching into the drawer of his bedside table for a condom and rolling it on, and then he was there, all that thick, hard flesh filling her up, exactly how she’d needed. She raked her fingernails down his chest, and he fell over her, mouth open, eyes shut tight.
“Fuck, Jo, fuck, you feel—”
“You feel better, I promise.” She reeled him back in to kiss those soft, red lips. Bit down his throat and wrapped her legs around his hips. “Come on.”
His hips stuttered against hers, but then he was pulling back. The first, fast drive forward hit this tender place inside her. She dug her fingers into the meat of his ass and shifted the toy to a higher setting.
“Yes, that’s it,” she babbled, “right there.”
Getting his arms underneath him, he braced himself and pounded in even deeper.
And fuck him. She’d always been happy enough with just her vibrator before, but this was so much better. This was kissing and teeth and her mouth on his chest, the thick rod of his cock fucking her open and the sound of his breath, all those beautiful, pitchy noises he made as he hurtled toward his peak.
“Jo, I’m—”
That was all it took. Orgasm exploded out from her clit and from the depths of her all the way down to her toes. His mouth was on hers, swallowing her moans as he carried her through it, long thrusts that hit her in the best of places, right up until the fog in her mind started to clear, and then he buried his face in the pillow. Another couple of strokes and his whole body tensed.
And she pulsed around him as he groaned her name, pleasure making her stupid, making her crazy. Even crazier than she’d felt before.
Because this was too good. This was amazing.
How had she ever gotten by without it before?
“Jesus Christ,” Jo moaned as he flopped to the side. She flicked the vibrator off and let her hand fall to the sheets.
Adam nodded dumbly, staring up at the ceiling. His whole body felt like jelly, his skin slick with sweat. There might be bruises on his hips and ass from how hard she’d dug her fingers in, and there were definitely claw marks.
It was awesome.
“Is it actually a million degrees in here? I don’t think we’re in the center of a star, but—”
“I don’t know.” Adam laughed. Something felt like it had come unstuck in his chest. “I sure as hell saw stars.”
She swatted vaguely at his chest. “Not the same thing.”
“Oh.” Some coherency had returned to his brain, and his gross motor skills seemed to be coming back online. He lurched up and swung one leg over the side of the bed to deal with the condom. Once that was taken care of, he turned to Jo.
She was lying there on her back, naked and fucking gorgeous, hair damp with sweat, breasts glistening. His gaze trailed down—
“Nope. No. Do not get any ideas.” She held out a hand in protest, arresting his admiration. She dragged the sheet up to cover all the good bits.
He leaned over her, letting his lips hover just above hers. “I have lots of ideas.” Hooking a finger into the top of the sheet, he peered beneath. “Many of them good.” Before she could yell at him to stop it, he gave her a quick peck against the corner of her mouth. “Such as going and getting us both about a gallon of ice water.”
She actually moaned at that, and it made a bunch of other ideas fight for precedence. She wound her fingers in his hair and dragged him down for a wetter, more open kiss. Then she summarily shoved him away. “I knew I was fucking you for a reason.”
Something twisted in his chest, hearing her refer to it so flippantly.
Sure, most of their meetings were after dark. Sure, she still hadn’t spent the night. But you didn’t tell a guy about your dead mom—didn’t let him hold you afterward when it was just fucking.
They might not have a huge amount of time, but Adam was patient. Sooner or later, he was going to get her to see that.
Mock-grumbling, he said, “And I thought it was just because of these.” He patted his biceps before peeling his skin from hers and hauling himself from the bed. He dragged on a pair of basketball shorts and turned toward the door. “Back in a sec.”
As an afterthought, he strode to the window and grabbed the fan he’d had running on high all night and angled it directly at the bed. The stream of air flowed right over Jo, blowing her hair to the side and rustling the sheets. She melted into the mattress, letting out a throaty moan that had him ready to forget his trip to the kitchen in favor of trying to convince her to stay for round two.
He checked himself. Water. Right.
No matter how much it killed him, he left her there in his bed. Closing the door behind him just in case, he padded out into the house. With every step, his mind drifted further off into what he wanted to do to her next. How he wanted to have her, how he wanted to take her apart. They had all night; they practically had the house to themselves. He could…
He made it almost to the kitchen before he realized his mistake.
The light over the stove was on. And there were people talking. Hushed and laughing and maybe a little bit slurred.
“Shh, shh,” a male voice hissed, “no, be quiet. Maybe he’s just going to the bathroom—”
He rounded the corner, his stomach sinking. And there were Jared and Kim and a deck of cards. And what used to be a bottle of rum.
Oh, hell.
“Too late,” Kim mumbled, her hand over her mouth, her gaze on Adam.
Jared snuck an exaggerated, faux-stealthy peek over his shoulder and whispered, “Oh, shit.” Then they let out another round of giggles, and Jared turned around for real, his expression sloppy and his arms wide. Speaking louder now, he addressed Adam as if noticing him for the first time. As if they hadn’t just been talking about him. “Adam! We didn’t know you were up!”
Like hell they hadn’t. He and Jo hadn’t exactly been quiet. But it was after one in the morning, and on a Thursday night, and he and Jo had been the only ones pulling graveyard shifts with the telescope. Nobody else was supposed to be awake. His heart thundered in his chest. What if they’d heard? What if—
His stream of thought stopped itself in its tracks as he really took them in.
He furrowed his brow, quirking his head to the side. “Are you guys wearing… swimsuits?”
Kim struck a pose. “We’re going to the beach on Saturday!”
Yes, yes, they were. Well, the group was going. Adam was going. And he really needed to ask Jo if she was, too.
Still… “But you’re wearing your swimsuits now.”
“And you are, too,” Jared said.
“These are my running shorts.” Adam glanced down at himself, ready to point out just how different his bottoms were from swim trunks. Only his gaze caught on his own chest. And his words stuck in his throat.
He hadn’t been wrong about Jo, back when he’d fantasized that she might be a biter. They’d been good and kept most of their marks to places that would be covered by their shirts, but he wasn’t wearing one right now.
A misplaced surge of arousal moved through him. He wanted to press his fingers to the line of purpling bruises she’d made with her mouth. There wasn’t any mistaking what they were.
He swallowed hard. Maybe Jared and Kim were drunk enough they wouldn’t notice. If they did, maybe they’d forget.
Then, from down the hall, he heard a door open.
“What’s taking you so long?” Jo whisper-yelled into the night.
Adam dug his thumb into his eye, pulling it away just in time to catch her coming down the hall. Wrapped in a sheet.
It all happened in slow motion. He needed to stop her, tell her to stay put, but even that would be evidence she was here. She came into view, and everything went silent.