“Let me start over,” she told him. “After Jude, I didn’t want to feel. I thought emotions and love were stupid things made up to torture people. I swore, I would never let myself fall apart again like I did with Jude. He ruined me.”
She fiddled with her fingers but kept eye contact. Eric needed to know she meant it.
“But without even trying, we fell together. You and I. Not easily. We fought. We argued. We yelled at each other. You didn’t put me on a pedestal. You treated me like I was a normal person. Not a queen or a bitch or a slut. And without even knowing it, I fell head over heels for you.”
“You did a good job of showing it,” he said sarcastically.
“I know. This hasn’t been easy for me. I mean, I was fucked up long before Jude. My parents’ divorce kind of shattered my world. I thought my stepmother had come in and ruined everything for me, but I talked to her after she had Zoe, and it turned out that I had been wrong about a lot of things. I think, in my own way, I showed you I cared. That night Audrey showed up at my house? I kissed you because I was jealous.”
Eric raised his eyebrows. “I figured as much.”
“I’ve never been jealous or guilty or regretful. It’s all because of you.”
“Oh, good. I bring out the worst in you.”
“God, that’s not what I meant.” She ground her teeth together to try to keep herself from biting back at him. “I ran. I was scared. Yep, I did it. What I felt for you…feel for you, I didn’t want to feel. I tried to escape it, but I couldn’t.”
“What do you feel? You still haven’t said exactly.”
“I’ve never done this before.”
“Tell me, or walk, Bri.”
Every time he pushed, she’d dig her feet in. She should just tell him, but for some reason, she couldn’t get the words out. They were there on the tip of her tongue, but they were just out of reach.
“Stop being so pushy! I’m here! That’s what you wanted, right?”
“I wanted honesty.” He gave her a demanding look.
“I want to be with you,” she said in a rush.
“Why? Two weeks ago, you claimed you didn’t want to be near me. Why now? What changed?”
“Because even when I’m not with you, I want to be. Seeing you brightens my day. Hearing you call me Hollywood or Bri feels right. I miss margarita Sundays and having lunch with you on Wednesdays. I miss seeing you at parties and being myself around you. I even miss our arguments. I don’t have to dig or be a good girl with you. I can just be myself. No matter what, it always comes back to you. It’s because I don’t want anyone else. I just want you.”
He smiled smugly. “That’s more like it.”
“Cocky asshole.”
“Pretty much, but you just said you liked that.”
“It wasn’t expressly listed,” she said.
“I added it to the list.”
Bryna looked at her feet and debated where to take it from here. There was still so much that needed to be said and that they needed to work out.
“I don’t care if we have to take things slow,” she told him. “We weren’t dating before. I know I have some making up to do.”
“Hmm…” he said, taking a step toward her. “Slow might work as long as I get to use all that make-up time.”
“A solid month of making up,” she offered.
“A month? Please! You walked out last semester.”
“You were sleeping with someone else!” she reminded him.
“So were you.”
“This isn’t helping,” she said. “You’re arguing with me about last semester when I’m over here, telling you that I’m in love with you.”
SHE LOVED HIM.
Bryna’s hand flew to cover her mouth at the same time his dropped wide open. She hadn’t known she was going to say that. She hadn’t even officially realized that was what she was feeling. But now that it was out, she couldn’t take it back. She didn’t want to take it back.
Love was something she had never wanted to feel again. But with Eric, she couldn’t help it. He drove her crazy, and he put her in her place, but he cared for her. He wasn’t purposely malicious, and even when she wouldn’t fight for herself, he was there fighting for them. He had known what she needed long before she did. She had taken a while to get there.
“You love me?” Eric asked in surprise. He walked over to her, and she met his gaze.
“Yeah, I do. I guess I’ve known for a while. I didn’t want it to be true with my past, but I can’t fight it. I love you.”
“You have a weird way of showing it.”
Bryna smacked his arm. “Ass.”
He grabbed her arm and then hauled her against him. In an instant, his lips were on hers.
It was like diving into a swimming pool on a hot summer day. The world silenced all around her.
His lips were soft, sensual, and all-consuming. There was nothing else in that moment, other than the feel of him against her. Her body pressed into his, and his arms wrapped around her waist. She brought hers around his neck. She was clinging to him breathlessly.
It felt like coming home.
She had been denying this for so long. Now, she had no reason to. She shouldn’t have waited. She had been stubborn and idiotic to push him away. She had never felt this complete release with no expectations and no complications.
Just Eric.
His tongue caressed her bottom lip, and she shivered all over.
He smiled against her mouth. “You love me,” he whispered.
“Yes.”
“I love you, too.”
She met his gaze, and all the pieces fell into place. This was where she was meant to be. Not with someone who valued her for her looks or her body. Not with someone who bought her happiness with gifts or someone who only liked her because of who he thought she was.
Just Eric, who loved her for exactly who she was.
Suddenly, the temperature skyrocketed. All the pent-up energy from their time apart hit a crescendo. There were no barriers. Nothing kept them from one another, and they both realized it at the same moment.
Eric pushed them backward, crashing into the bed. His hands went up into her hair and brought their lips together harder, more desperate. Her fingers worked at the hem of his shorts, and she was aching to claw them off of him.
“I need you out of these clothes,” he said.
Fuck!
They were on the same page.
“Yes,” she agreed. “Now.”
He grabbed the bottom of her shirt and yanked it over her head. She hastily removed her shorts while he ripped his own clothes off his body. She ran her hands down his toned chest. He had a rocking body, and she wanted to investigate every inch of it.
He groaned at the feel of her touching his skin and kissed her again. “Get on that bed,” he commanded.
She scrambled backward, not caring in the slightest how sexy she looked. He was staring at her as if he had never wanted anything else more in his life. And in that moment, she felt sexier than she ever had before. It was through his eyes that her body came alive.
Eric followed her onto the bed, and the feverish pitch that their desire hit sent sparks through every nerve in her body. He traced his lips across her shoulders, down the sides of her stomach, over the curves of her hips, and lingered on her thighs. His lips worked their way back up. He kissed her knee once, slowly and tenderly, as if he wanted to remember the way her body felt, treasure the memory, and ingrain it in his mind.
She trembled as he worked his way back up her thigh, stopping when he hit her thong. His breath was hot against her skin, and she imagined all the things he would do with that mouth. It only made her body awaken more to his touch.
As she angled her hips nearer to his mouth, he chuckled lightly against her skin. “Let me savor you,” he said.
Bryna groaned, but she wasn’t really complaining.
Eric kissed up her flat stomach and to her breasts barely hidden beneath a thin layer of sheer material. He opened the hook and eye and tossed the bra to the floor.
“That’s better,” he groaned.
Her breasts were on full display, and he seemed to revel in every last inch she was showing.
“You’ve seen them before,” she teased.
“Don’t remind me.”
He pushed his growing erection against her core at the thought. Her head dipped back, and she squeezed her legs around him.
Fuck! I want him.
“That day was like torture,” he said. His hands began massaging her tits. “You stepped out of that dress, soaking wet, and all I could think about was what I wanted to do to keep you soaking wet.”
“Fuck,” she cried.
She greedily rubbed herself against him. His words were doing the trick well enough on their own.
His tongue flicked her nipple, and her whole body spasmed.
“Oh God!”
“I had to go upstairs to try to calm down. I was rock hard,” he said, shoving against her again, “and terrified you would notice. I wasn’t supposed to have that kind of reaction to you. But fuck, your body.”
He brought her nipple into his mouth and sucked on it, long and hard. As he moved to the other one, his hand pinched the bud tight, causing her to jump. His tongue swirled and energetically stroked her into a frenzy.
“Fuck me, Eric. Just fuck me,” she begged. “Oh my God, I need you inside me.”
He looked up at her with that beautiful smile. “I’m just getting started.”
He pinched her nipple, and she trembled.
“So, you like that. Good. I want to know everything you like. Every time I touch your body, I want you to think about me doing this.” He brushed his finger against her erect nipple. “And this.” He dragged it through his teeth. “And this.”
Eric moved his mouth lower and lower until he was kissing the line of her panties. He dragged them off of her body, letting his fingers glide the length of her legs. Then, he grabbed her hips, pulled her flat on the bed, and spread her legs before him. He buried his face between her legs, and there was nothing but the touch of his tongue, the eagerness of his mouth, and the waves of pleasure coursing through her body.
She was holding on by a thread. He brushed her clit with his tongue, and her whole body shook with her lack of restraint. She was not going to be able to keep this up. Her body was already turning to putty.
His fingers skimmed up her leg and then down the length of her lips. She was already so wet and easily coated him.
“Fuck,” he said against her skin.
She was a goner.
He slid his fingers in and out of her, and he had to use his other arm to hold her body down. She felt herself coming undone. She couldn’t hold out any longer. It was as if he already knew exactly how to work her. He knew her body like he knew her mind.
She came hard at the insistence of his fingertips and the tip of his tongue. She honestly wasn’t sure if she had ever come this hard. She was swimming in a sea of euphoria. Her body was coated in the stars. Her mind was basking in the glow of the sun. She was away—far, far away—where nothing could reach her as she rocketed through the sky.
She must have cried out because suddenly Eric’s mouth was on hers. He tasted of her, but she didn’t pull away. She felt blissfully alive, endorphins hitting her body with the force of a bulldozer.
“You’re amazing,” he said.
“Me? You’re the one who made me orgasm,” she muttered.
He laughed. “I like you like this.”
“You can make me like this…anytime.”
“I plan to.”
Eric stripped out of his boxers and settled himself between her legs.
She put her hand out to stop him. “Wait…don’t you want me to make you feel good?”
“This is going to make me feel very good,” he said as he slid inside her without protest.
He buried himself deep until she was completely full. Her body contracted all around him.
“Next time,” she whispered. Then, she lost her train of thought.
“Next time, I will fuck you, too. And the next time and the next time.”
“Okay,” she agreed.
He laughed into her neck. “You agree so easily. I could get used to this.”
“You’d better.”
He lovingly kissed her neck once and then started up a slow pace, testing her. She gripped his muscular back, digging her fingernails in. He felt incredible. This was a thousand times better than when he had taken her in the locker room, and that had been mind-blowing. But this time…he was hers.
It blew her away that Eric Wilkins was hers. She had idolized him as a football player, thought he was gay, hated him, become friends with him, and then fallen in love with him. It all felt…surreal. Here she was, not just fucking Eric, but making love with him. This was terrifying in the finality of it, but she wanted it. She wanted him.
Sensing her emotions, Eric picked up the pace. He slammed into her relentlessly. As she felt him getting closer, he wrapped his arms around her back and hauled her up into a sitting position. Then, he worked her hips, so she was bouncing up and down on top of him. He pushed into her so deep that she didn’t think she could hold out any longer.
“Oh, fuck,” she cried.
“Come for me, Bri,” he demanded.
“Come with me.”
And they did. Her whole world tilted, and suddenly, as if it had always been that way, it started to revolve around this wonderful man. He held her in his arms as they both came down from their climaxes and lightly kissed her all over. First, on her hair, then her forehead, cheeks, chin, nose, and finally, her lips. Featherlight kisses that promised so much.
He pulled back to stare into her eyes and then smiled. “I love you,” he reminded her.
“I love you, too.”
He looked relieved.
She nudged him. “I’m not going to change my mind.”
“Well, certainly not after that,” he joked.
She sighed and lay back on the bed. “I feel amazing.”
“I feel like I’m going to need another shower.”
She looked up at him with mischief in her eyes. “I could help with that.”
They spent the rest of the night locked in each other’s arms, making up for lost time. They knew that not everything would be fixed between them so easily, but this was the first step.