Page 29 of Holden

“Do you have any idea how beautiful you are, sweetness?”

My throat goes raw with emotion.

Holden kisses my stomach. “I want to spend hours showing you. Will you let me?”

It’s like my heart is a bomb, each tender kiss, or sweet word ticking another second off the clock, counting down to an explosion of pleasure. I curl my body into the mattress, further tangling the sheets around my calves and ankles. My fingernails scrape against Holden’s back.

He shifts ever so slight, so that his cock is up against the entrance of my pussy. I’m so wet I can smell the muskiness, its potent scent merging with cinnamon spice and the hint of vanilla.

I wrap my legs around his hips at the moment he enters me.

One of his hands comes around to cup my ass, while the other tangles up in my hair. We are so close, I can hear the steady thump of his heartbeat. The purr from his throat as we begin to move in tandem.

Our bodies undulate together in a slow, but steady rhythm. I tilt my head back, and Holden kisses my throat. His tongue trails across my jaw, and then dips between my lips. I grip the back of his head and hold his mouth to mine as the first ripple of pleasure pulses from me.

I squeeze my legs on his hips and arch toward him, driving his cock deeper into me. My pussy clenches, releases, and then tightens as I begin to climax in full. The orgasm rolls through me, the ebb and flow so different than before. Goosebumps ripple across my flesh.

My voice is so soft, I almost don’t hear myself whispering, can hardly make out the words as I beg Holden to come.

Somewhere, in the middle of my incredible climax, Holden’s body tenses and I am filled with his release, my name the last thing on his lips. Minutes later, I look up at his mouth, at the curve of his smile, and with a light heart, allow myself to drift into dreamland.

Chapter 15

When I wake for the second time, my eyes lock on the empty pillow beside me. A ripple of panic runs up and down my spine. Holden is not in bed. I pat the sheet, cool to my touch, and my heart leaps into my throat.

He left? When?

Of course, he would. What reason would he have to stay the night? I roll over onto my back and stare at the ceiling, fighting the urge to cry. How stupid of me to think he would still be here come morning light. Was it all a dream?

I grab the pillow next to me and sniff, finding relief in his familiar scent. Not a dream…

I sit upright at the sound of a low voice. At first, I assume it’s one of Lindsay’s newest conquests, and I flop back on the mattress, covering my face with the pillow. I so don’t have the energy to meet another of Lindsay’s boy toys right now, not with the memory of Holden’s touch so imprinted in my mind.

But then the voice comes again, louder, and I realize it belongs to Holden.

The brief spike of relief that shoots through me is tempered by fear, when I also realize that he’s in the kitchen…talking to my roommate. Shit.

I bolt out of bed and fumble into a pair of shorts and tank. It hits me that my robe is in a puddle in the living room, and we had sex on the couch—the very same couch I gave Lindsay a hard time about having sex on. My cheeks are hot and I know they’re burning red. I’m nervous about the questions Lindsay will ask, but more than that, I’m scared about what she might be telling Holden right now.

Lindsay doesn’t know everything about my past, but she knows enough that Holden could catch me in a lie.

My chest tightens and I struggle to breathe.

The thought of losing him is debilitating. Crippling. Which is ridiculous. I don’t even know him—but I care. Way more than I should. And with that realization comes another, more shocking truth: I have to come clean about who I am.

Today.

No good relationship starts with a secret. That’s practically Dating 101. And it makes sense. The lie taints everything before it even gets started. How do you trust again? Or at all? Maybe Holden isn’t ready to walk down the aisle, but last night certainly took us beyond the neat and tidy parameters of our current agreement. It’s messy and unstructured and totally…

What I want.

I float into the kitchen, both relieved and nervous to find Holden and Lindsay laughing over something. His chuckle is like liquid lava running through my core. Lindsay tops up his coffee, spots me, and raises a perfectly-manicured eyebrow. “Well, good morning sunshine.”

Lindsay cups her coffee close to her chest and addresses Holden, as if I’ve interrupted their conversation and she’s merely getting back to it. “You’re a pilot, right?”

Liquid jealousy bubbles just under my skin. Figures Lindsay would know a lot about Holden—who hasn’t heard of New York’s most eligible bachelor?—but it should have been me that said it. I don’t like the way her eyes have glassed over either, or the way Holden is staring at her, like he’s pleased she knows that.

I shake my head, flinging out the cobwebs of envy. Sure, Lindsay looks like a damn supermodel with her “just woke up” tousled hair, but she wasn’t the one Holden spent all night pleasuring. That is what I need to hang on to, even if it’s a thin thread of hope.