Southerin Nights and Secrets (Boys are Back in Town) Read online

  Virginia tugged harder and pulled him away from her body. Surprise was her edge, and Beckett did nothing to stop her as she pushed him away slightly and lowered herself to her knees in front of him. His lips were wet, a little swollen from his attention to her body, eyes wide with the gleam of anticipation flaring in their depths.

  “Now it’s your turn not to move.”

  She reached up, making quick work of his belt, the button on his pants and then lowered the zipper. His erection was full and pressing against the soft fabric of his boxer briefs, the head exposed as it protruded above the waistband. Virginia leaned and inhaled the musk-warm smell of him, reaching her tongue out to taste. Beckett’s moan, low and growly, made her toes curl in her stilettos and she dove deeper, sucking him in.

  “Holy shit,” Beckett said as he shoved his boxers far down enough for her to have access to all of him. “I always loved the sight of you on your knees.”

  And she loved being there. All that power. She might be the one on the floor but when she did this to him she felt like Godzilla conquering Tokyo—every fear, every insecurity—was felled by her power.

  Virginia lifted her gaze, unsurprised and pleased to find him watching her. She took him as far as she could, using every skill she had to bring him to the edge, to make him lose his mind. When he let go, the sex would be hard and rough and fast and there would be no time for her to linger or dwell on the confusing mess of emotions in her head.

  He was rock hard, filling her mouth and her senses. Her hands were shaking with the need building up inside her body and the urge to touch herself was almost painful. Instead she slid her hands around his body, taking in the hard globes of his ass and pressing him forward, encouraging him to rock himself into her, to take what he needed.

  Beckett’s fingers cupped her skull as he groaned on the first thrust. By the third, fifth, tenth, she could feel the tremor in his hands, the effort it took for him to hang on and enjoy the ride. Deep down inside her the woman she could be with him stirred from her nine-year-long nap and she moaned in her throat, the sound almost drowning out the gasp as he wrenched back and pulled himself from her grip.

  “Stop. I don’t want to come that way.”

  Beckett jerked her to her feet, the roughness of the action in direct contrast to the now gentle possession of her mouth.

  His kiss was sweet, where his words were harsh and the combination made her head swim. Beckett had a way of blending his equal parts of angel and devil that was spell-binding. His lips, soft and warm coaxed her own with soft brushes and tender nips of teeth, but when she opened under his gentle assault the kiss became something more. A mingling of her sigh and his moan, liquid heat and soft velvet as his tongue dove in and stroked the fire of her desire.

  His arms, hard and taut with his strength, looped around her body, pulling her up against his body and almost off the floor. He was tall but she was in heels and with his support they touched from joined mouths, to heaving chests, his hard, wet cock trapped between their bodies and pressing against her sex. Virginia lifted her own hands to his hair, wrapping the soft strands around her fingers until she could get enough leverage to hold him tight, keeping him there, silently begging him to continue his delicious plunder.

  She loved to kiss, he knew it and drew it out, pulling her deeper into his spell. Her lips were swollen and sensitized from being wrapped around him and the tingling wash of fire coupled with the mingling taste of his arousal and her want made her dizzy. Virginia opened her mouth wider, inviting him to devour her, thrown completely off balance when he pulled away, holding her up with tight arms banded around her back. His hair, dark and wavy, fell over his eyes but could not diminish the feral gleam of bronze fire in their depths.

  Beckett looked wild and untamed. She shivered under his intense focus. It excited her to know Beckett had not mellowed over the years because she wanted the fire, the rollercoaster, the savage lover who’d taken her so many years ago. Not for forever…just for tonight.

  “What do you want?” she asked, the urge to please him, to give him what he needed rising up with no chance of her tamping it down. It was stupid to deny this part of her because she knew that pleasing Beckett always ended up in the win column for her. He would never leave her wanting, never let her go until she’d been completely satisfied.

  The thought that Beckett wouldn’t let her fall, that she could trust him flared a rush of panic in her gut. That was too close to a need beyond her body, dangerously in the vicinity of engaging her emotions and that would not do.

  “What do you want?” she asked, the urge to get this back to bodies and chemistry and hormones was overwhelming.

  He stared at her for a few breathless moments. He hadn’t missed her pause and she could tell by the flicker of curiosity in his eyes that he wondered if he should pursue the why or just let it go.

  “Get on your bed. Hands and knees,” he ordered, turning her toward the hallway that led to the back of the condo. “Lose the bra and panties.”

  Virginia turned, her body singing with anticipation of what was to come, of what she hoped would follow. Two steps from him, the touch of his hand on her arm stopped her and she shifted her gaze to his face, waiting.

  “Leave the heels on.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Watching Ginger walk away from him was both agony and ecstasy.

  He’d been holding his breath since the elevator doors opened and he met her eyes down the long hallway. Ginger was no pushover, not easily persuaded and she’d end all the fun and games in half a heartbeat if she let that brain take over the show.

  This was more than just sex. It had always been more than just the physical between them, but he was the only one in this pair who was admitting it right now. Ginger had never just been a warm body or a little fun to him. It was why he’d left her alone all those years ago. But now she was back and he didn’t know what it meant, but his first inclination wasn’t to head for the nearest exit.

  No. Right now the only place he was heading was into her bedroom.

  Beck headed down the short hallway, ditching his shoes and his socks as he followed the path of dark hardwood floors until he came to a room dominated by a king-size bed and the woman waiting for him.

  She wasn’t on her hands and knees, her body was draped across the top of the pale coverlet, her belly, hips canted up in obvious invitation. She’d loved this position, with his own form covering her as he slid in and out of her. Ginger had told him that she got off on the full body contact, her having to surrender and allow the pressure and weight of him on top, her inability to hardly do anything but hang on for the ride.

  He loved how wild she got. The sounds she made. The tight grip of her sex on his dick as he plunged in and out.

  Beck sucked in a loud breath, shaken and excited by the sight and the memories as he dropped his shirt to the floor.

  “What is it?” Ginger didn’t roll over, only twisting to look over the curve of her shoulder and he was lucky to stay on his feet.

  “You’re just so fucking gorgeous,” he said, shoving his pants and briefs to the floor, his hand automatically going to his cock and beginning the slow stroke that would heighten his pleasure, but not too far. When he came it was going to be when he was buried deep inside her as she begged under him. “I almost hate to dirty you up.”

  Ginger’s gaze drifted down to where he gripped himself and she lifted her mouth in a teasing grin that told him she liked the sight of him on edge, was enjoying her power in this little scene.

  “Almost?”

  “Don’t worry.” He took the few steps necessary to get him to the bed and crawled up alongside her, half over her, relishing her groan at the contact. She dropped her head down, still propped up on her elbows and the position gave him access to her neck, the sensitive area along her hairline. “‘Almost’ never stopped me before.”

  Her skin was supple and warm under his touch as he ran his fingertips and mouth along the delicate stretch of her
neck and shoulder. Delicious. Delectable. Decadent. All words to describe her taste, her sweet and spicy scent, the tang of her arousal. She was a feast and he was starving for her. Yes, he’d had womenlots of womenbut they’d never completely quenched his appetite. He’d always been hungry for this, for the woman shifting against the silks of her sheets as her body responded to his touch.

  The years had done nothing to lessen her beauty, the sexy dips and curves of her body. Ginger was long, finely sculpted muscles under the caramel-colored skin he nipped and sucked as he followed the path of her spine, taking detours to enjoy every inch of her on the way down.

  Her ass was still the best he’d ever seen. Rounded and full, it was bite-worthy and she yelped a little when he took a taste.

  “Hey,” she complained, the sensual pout to her words erasing any trace of censure. “Watch the teeth.”

  “This will make it feel better,” he said before he dipped lower and licked her cleft, bracing his hands on her hips as she bucked up and gasped. Taking advantage of her movement, he spread her legs farther apart and sucked on her clit, enjoying the taste of her. He swirled, laved, and kissed her between her legs until she was a writhing mess of gasping pleas. She was moving against him in earnest, her body seeking the pleasure that he knew was shimmering just outside her reach.

  He was right there with her, hard as stone and aching to come but he didn’t want this to end too soon. Nine years of foreplay, and they were both on a hair trigger. Time to slow things down a bit.

  He lifted his head, immediately missing the taste of her but the shiver that ran through her body at his words was worth it. “Hands on the headboard. Don’t move or I stop.”

  “Beckett.” Her voice was strained with her passion and tinged with anger. He waited, watching as she wrestled with her response. Finally. After an eternity she exhaled and then lifted one hand, bracing herself before lifting the other. “If you don’t let me come soon, I might kill you.”

  He chuckled, his voice dark and gravelly to his own ears. “If you kill me we can’t do this again.”

  Beck snagged his pants from where they sat on the floor, extracting the condom from the pocket, opening the foil packet and covering his erection.

  “Bastard.”

  Her length was stretched out, waiting for him to do something and for a moment he was paralyzed with choice. Beck moved closer, pressing kisses against her lower back while teasing her with his fingers against the folds of her sex. She was so wet, so ready, and he was beyond his ability to draw this out any longer. He wanted her, needed her.

  He traveled up her form, biting and soothing with his mouth in turns as he draped his body over her own. His dick was pressed against the wet heat of her core and he reached down, using one hand to place himself at her opening and push slowly inside.

  She was hot and tight and the closest thing to perfection he’d found on this planet. Ginger pulled away slowlyjust a bitand then eased back onto him in a move that tore groans from them both.

  Beckett hovered over her, every place where their bodies touched on fire, sparks of pleasure so good it almost hurt ignited at each nerve ending. It was exquisite torture and he’d kill anyone who tried to separate them at this moment.

  “You’ve got the most fuckable body I’ve ever seen,” he growled against the curve where her neck and shoulder met as he started the slow glide of in and out that would take them both to the place where only pleasure existed.

  Ginger undulated under him, against the movement of his hips, a tight grip around his cock. He looped his right arm around her torso, angling across her front, holding her breast in his palm. He teased the nipple, playing with her flesh until it was hard in between his fingertips and her hips shook with each pull and light squeeze.

  She turned her head, her mouth open in an invitation that he could not resist. Their tongues tangled together, each swallowing the moans and cries of the other as his hips sped up almost involuntarily. His thrusts were shallower now, the ache in his balls each time he left her warmth settling in the small of his back, letting him know that he was only good for a little while longer.

  This was Ginger. While she’d been the one on her knees tonight, he was really at her mercy and had been since those few short months almost a decade ago.

  Beck lifted her up and eased her back to rest into the curve of his hips. In this position, he could fuck into her hard and deep while keeping their bodies tightly bound together. He didn’t want to lose the connection of their kiss but he wanted to explore her flesh, to touch as much of her as he could. Ginger’s hands were also busy, reaching behind and gripping his hip and then his ass with a power that dared him to be any further away from her as he was right now.

  He continued to tease her nipples but could not resist teasing the place between her legs where he could feel his own length slide in and out of her. Her clit was exposed to the press and rub of his thumb as he continued to drive deep.

  “Oh my God,” she ripped her mouth away from his, her voice rough and needy as her body began to shake against him with her orgasm. “It’s so…oh God.”

  Her sex clenched around him with each pulse of her pleasure, and he was helpless in the free fall. The best kind of adrenaline rush pounded through his veins, and he thrust into her heat and emptied himself into the condom with shuddering breaths and moans that hurt his chest.

  Ginger collapsed forward onto the bed and he followed her, still buried inside her, unwilling to relinquish this moment. She grasped his left hand in her own, held tightly against her chest and the frantic beating of her heart. It was hard to believe that so many years had passed when it felt like he’d been here all along.

  In this moment, everything that was right or wrong about them was stripped away, and they were left with a terrible intimacy that was visceral, elemental. If anyone asked, he’d tell them that this was what whispered to him late at night as he eased out of another woman’s bed, immediately seeking the next big thrill to get his blood pumping and his body actually feeling.

  Ginger was his natural high, his place of refuge, and the only person who could come close to turning off all the crap in his head.

  What was he going to do about it? What did he want to do about it? He had no fucking clue.

  He closed his eyes, face buried in the satiny length of her hair and let his mind wander, enjoying the feel of her in his arms. They dozed for a while, wrapped up in each other and the place of denial that only exists in the middle of the night.

  When she moved, shifting out of his embrace, he pulled her back in, murmuring, “Stay. We don’t have to get up for hours yet.”

  “Beckett,” she said, still wriggling out of his grasp. When he opened his eyes, she was sitting on the edge of the bed, naked back rigid with whatever was keeping her awake.

  “Gin, come back to bed.” When she didn’t move, he sat up and eased across the mattress. As he got closer, the tension in her body wafted off her in waves. He resisted the urge to touch her, knowing that if he did she’d bolt out of the room like a bullet. When she spoke, the words weren’t a big surprise. So why did he flinch?

  “You need to go.”

  “I think I know but do you want to tell me why.” Beck wasn’t going to waste his time saying something like “you don’t mean it” because she did. Ginger wasn’t a woman who played games. It was refreshing and infuriating in equal parts.

  “I’ve carved out a place of calm and peace in my life, and I don’t have room for you. You’re too big, too complicated.”

  “Not safe?” He knew what she’d convinced herself she needed so it wasn’t a huge leap to guess where he didn’t fit the mold.

  “Exactly.” She twisted toward him, her face partially in shadow but he saw the conviction in the stubborn set of her mouth, but he also saw fear in her eyes, the tight grip of her fingers in the coverlet. Fuck, he was scared, too. It felt like maybe this moment was important, that the universe wouldn’t give him—them—another chance n
ot to fuck things up. But he had nothing to offer her, not the security she craved. That much had not changed in nine years.

  “So this was?” he asked, trying really hard not to let the panic settling in his gut manifest in his tone or words. “One and done?”

  “Oh, hell, Beckett,” she whispered, her eyes glittering with moisture in the moonlight streaming through the window. She wasn’t immune to the tension and emotion surrounding them like the fog on the mountains in the morning. “This was our good-bye.”

  Her voice was strained, echoed in the way she swayed away from him as if she was worried he was going to touch her again. It was a smart move. If he touched her, he’d have her screaming in orgasm in fifteen minutes, and they’d be replaying this conversation at daybreak. Years ago he would have done that exact thing but tonight? He had no idea what he wanted from her beyond fucking until they couldn’t walk. He felt…more…but was he willing to follow wherever that led?

  No. He wasn’t.

  How could he settle down when he wasn’t even settled in his own skin?

  This was usually the time he was headed for the door as he pulled up his pants. But that familiar compulsion was not there. Instead he was scrabbling to try and find an excuse to stay. Which was the best sign that he probably needed to leave.

  He rose from the bed, grabbing his pants off the floor and easing them up. His fingers fumbled with the zipper and button but he managed to get the task completed and his shirt on before he spoke again.

  “So that was our break-up sex?” Beck purposefully injected a lighter tone to his words, hoping that he pulled it off as he eased the last button through its hole. “Nine years later?”

  “Better late than never,” she answered, stalking his every move with eyes that betrayed just how much she wanted to strip his clothes off him again. “It was time.”

  “Time, huh?” he asked, shoving his hand in his pockets in an effort to resist the invitation in kiss-swollen lips. “I guess Pete might have asked the right question then. We always seem to come back to timing.”