More Than Comics (7 page)

Kyle nodded and hopped up from the couch, pulling Alexis with him. They had their own hotel room, since Alexis was working as a photographer while at Comic-Con. “We’re going to head out too,” he said. “We’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

They all rushed out of the room like it was on fire, leaving me and Tara alone on the couch, still sitting close from when there had been too many people on it.

Neither of us moved apart. Our eyes locked and it struck me again how pretty she was. Her soft lips twitched up into the slightest hint of a smile before she looked away, almost like she was shy or nervous.

I was hit by the overwhelming urge to draw her. I just hoped she wouldn’t take it the wrong way. Or read too much into it.

“Stay like that.” I grabbed my sketchbook off the other table and sat beside her again, just as close. She still didn’t inch away.

She tilted her head. “Like what?”

“Don’t move. I want to draw you.”

She laughed and tucked a piece of golden hair behind her ear, folding her legs beneath her. “I’m all sweaty and tired and gross after a long day at Comic-Con.”

“You look beautiful.” The words slipped out by accident, but her warm smile made me not regret them. “I want to capture you just like this, on the day we finally met in person.”

“What do I do?”

I took my pencil from the corner of the sketchbook and opened to a blank page. “Just act normal. Tell me what you most want to see at Comic-Con.”

“Um, I don’t know. The usual stuff. The Marvel and DC panels, but I’ve heard those are hard to get into.” She shifted awkwardly, like she was trying to get comfortable but was too self-conscious now that she knew I was drawing her.

“We’re camping out all night in the Hall H line tomorrow so we can get into them.” I started my sketch, focusing on her cobalt blue eyes first. I couldn’t capture them properly with just a black pencil, but I would do my best.

“Oh yeah?” She put her hands on the couch for a second, then moved them to her lap, like she couldn’t decide what to do with them.

“We’ve got sleeping bags and food and beer. It’ll be one big party. You should join us.”

“That sounds fun. I might have to take you up on that.”

She slowly relaxed as she told me about the things she’d heard would be revealed at the DC and Marvel panels about the upcoming movies. I kept her talking as I sketched her smile, her bright eyes, the feminine curves of her face, the trail of blond hair down her shoulder, the delicate slope of her neck.

“I want to go to a couple different book panels tomorrow,” she continued. “There’s one with a bunch of bestselling fantasy and sci-fi authors that sounds amazing. Then in the afternoon there’s a panel about writing and drawing diverse characters that I can’t miss.”

“I saw that in the schedule. It looked good.”

“We should go together!”

I grinned, pleased that she wanted to spend so much time with me this week. “We will. Although we should have been
on
that panel.”

She laughed. “True. You can complain to Miguel that he didn’t hook us up.”

“Nah. The less I have to talk in front of people, the better.”

“I thought that stuff didn’t make you nervous?”

“It doesn’t. But I still hate it.”

I stopped to examine my work. For the first time I felt like I was able to capture her, the
real
her, now that I’d finally met her in person.

“Are you done?” she asked, trying to sneak a peek.

“Mostly.”

I could tweak the thing forever, but it was good enough to show her. Still, I hesitated, taking a moment to add a little more shading to her hair. She’d seen hundreds of my sketches before, along with that other drawing of her, but this one felt more important than anything else I’d done.

“Can I see?” She inched closer to me, her hip nudging against my side.

I relented, unable to deny her anything when she was this close. She gasped as soon as she saw the drawing. “Hector, this…this is beautiful.”

“You like it?”

“I
love
it. I want to hug it to my chest, that’s how much I love it, but I’m worried I’ll smear it.” She smiled down at my drawing before setting it beside her on the couch. “I’ll just hug you instead.”

Then she was in my arms again, soft, warm, and curvy, and I wrapped myself tight around her. This time neither of us pulled away. Instead, she smoothed her hands along my chest and looked up at me, her rose-colored lips parting. As I stared at her mouth I was tempted to do the thing I’d dreamed about for so long.

I’d never seen a more beautiful girl than her. Never wanted a girl more. Other women had been easy to resist. Jared had lured many of them away, and the rest weren’t difficult to turn down. But not her. She was my weakness.

When she didn’t move back, even after the reasonable time had passed for a friendly hug, courage flared in me. I bowed my head and brushed my lips across hers, the softest, lightest touch in case she didn’t want this kiss. I expected her to pull away, to ask, “What are you doing?”

But she didn’t.

She let out a quiet sigh, barely audible against my mouth, and closed her eyes like she was waiting for more. I took that as my cue and gave her another kiss, a real kiss this time. I was still hesitant, half-convinced she would stop me at any moment. This was crossing the line beyond friendship. I wasn’t sure I should be doing it, but I couldn’t help myself either. I’d dreamed of kissing Tara for years and now it was finally happening.

And impossibly, amazingly, she kissed me back.

I’d kissed girls before, but it had never been like this. Kissing Tara was like being kissed for the first time. Her lips were so sweet I wanted to taste her all night. I eased her mouth open softly, sliding my tongue inside, still waiting for her to stop me. I did everything slowly, giving her the opportunity to end it. But she didn’t.

I kissed her deeper. Harder. Demanding more from her.

And she let me.

Then she kissed
me
, shifting so she was on her knees on the couch and leaning against my chest, almost in my lap. She clutched my face and I drew her in closer, gripping her waist, her breasts rubbing against me through our clothes. My hands dipped down to cup her ass, to slide along her curves for the first time.

I’d suffered through years of lusting after her and now I finally had her in my arms. I couldn’t stop myself. I wanted,
needed
to touch her everywhere. I had to explore her and see if she lived up to the fantasy in my head. Except after that kiss I knew she would be even better than anything I’d imagined.

When we finally broke apart she whispered my name and it had never sounded so good. “Are you sure those drawings mean nothing?” she asked.

I tensed up, completely caught off guard. “What?”

“I…forget it.” She shook her head, pulling back. “God, what are we even doing?”

I drew in a ragged breath. “Do you want to stop?”

“Maybe…maybe we should.”

It was hard to stop touching her, so fucking hard, but I lifted my hands off her. “Whatever you want.”

She slowly climbed off the couch and yanked down her shirt, which had ridden up to show off her smooth, pale stomach. She looked dazed, like she wasn’t sure what to do. “I…I should go. Before this goes any further.”

I stood, but didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure how to convince her to stay. Wasn’t even sure I wanted her to stay.

No, that was a lie, as evidenced by my raging hard-on. I was dying for her to stay.

She walked to the door, but once there she paused and turned around. I took a step closer, unable to resist her magnetic pull. She stared at me and I was hypnotized by the way her breasts rose and fell with each of her quickened breaths. I moved even closer, until I was only an inch in front of her. Still, she didn’t leave. It was almost like she
wanted
me to stop her.

Did she?

“The drawings do mean something,” I confessed.

Her eyes widened. “What do they mean?”

I reached up to cup her face with my hands. My fingers were too big and unwieldy, too rough for her perfect, soft skin, yet I wanted to touch her everywhere.

“That I’ve been dying to kiss you for years.”

I captured her mouth with mine again, showing her exactly how much the drawings meant.

And she kissed me back even harder.

CHAPTER SEVEN
TARA

H
ector’s kisses nearly undid me. I knew I should go, that this could only lead to trouble, but I couldn’t. My body simply refused.

I couldn’t resist him.

I didn’t
want
to resist him.

He nipped at my lips and moved to kiss my neck, just below my ear. “Jesus, you have no idea how long I’ve thought about doing this.”

I closed my eyes as his mouth continued down to my shoulder. “How long?”

“For as long as I’ve known you.”

His confession shook me to my core. All this time, he’d desired me and I’d never known. If I had, would it have changed anything over the past three years? Would I have stayed with Andy for so long? Would I have taken the job in New York? I wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

All I knew was that once I felt his lips on mine I needed more.

“What else have you wanted to do?” I asked.

“Tara…” He broke away and studied me with those smoldering brown eyes.

I dug my fingers into his shirt and pulled him closer, pressing myself against his hard chest. “Tell me.”

“I want to see you naked. I want to taste every inch of you. I want to bury myself inside you.” His voice was rough, like his words were strained. Like it was hard for him to speak. “I want you.
All
of you.”

I felt drunk and out of control, all my inhibitions flying out the door. But I wasn’t drunk, or not on alcohol at least. I was drunk on Hector, on hearing him speak to me like that. It was a powerful thing, knowing someone had desired you for years in secret.

And, if I was honest with myself, deep down I’d always desired him, too.

“Do it,” I whispered. “Do everything you’ve thought about all this time.”

His eyes blazed with lust and he pushed me against the door I’d been about to leave through, pressing my back against it. His hands gripped my face, directing me, tilting my head exactly the way he wanted as he kissed me. His mouth was demanding, his grip strong, his desire rock hard against my waist. And I loved every second of it.

He raised his arms and pulled his shirt over his head, giving me a glorious view of his chest and abs. His body was all muscle and I wanted to trace every contour. I pressed a hand on his broad chest and slowly slid down, feeling each groove of his abs under my fingers, trailing along the dark hair from his waist into his jeans. They hung low on his defined hips, and the top of his briefs teased me with the promise of what was underneath. I wanted to explore that area so bad, but not yet. I moved my hands back up, to touch the rest of his strong body, to circle his dark nipples, to wrap my fingers around those firm biceps I’d been dying to touch. They felt as good as they looked, so firm and powerful and masculine.

He watched me explore him with an expression that looked almost…concerned. Like he was worried about something. With a body like that he had nothing to worry about. How was he still single? I know most girls fell all over Jared, but were they
blind
?

“You’re gorgeous,” I said.

He grunted. “That word doesn’t apply to me. To you, hell yes. But not to me.”

“Don’t argue with me,” I teased.

I slid my hands around his neck and pulled him down to my mouth, kissing him roughly. His fingers slipped under the lower hem of my shirt, sneaking across my bare skin, sliding up, up, up. We broke apart long enough for him to yank off my shirt and toss it on the floor, and then we were kissing again, like we couldn’t stand to not be connected for even a second.

He pulled back and spun me around before I knew what was happening. My palms lay flat on the door, my breasts pressed against it, my head forced to the side. He unhooked my bra and let it drop, then ran his fingers across my naked back, making me shiver. As I whimpered, he shifted my hair to the side and kissed along the curve of my neck and down my spine. His hands pinned mine to the door, and all I could do was stand there and let him explore me with his mouth. He was so gentle it made me tremble, even as he roughly held my wrists in place. I’d never had a guy do this before, be both so tender yet so firm and demanding all at once. The combination turned me on more than I’d ever thought possible.

I arched against him, feeling how hard he was even through our clothes. “Hector, please.”

He released one of my hands and I heard the scrape of fabric and the sound of his jeans hitting the floor behind me. A second later I felt him from behind, without those layers of clothes between us. Only my own clothes stopped our bodies from rubbing against each other.

He was naked behind me and I couldn’t see him. I wanted to turn around so bad, but he still held me in place. “Please,” I begged again. “I need to see you.”

He relented and turned me around, but before I got a chance to look at him he kissed down my chest and popped one of my breasts into his mouth. I moaned and clutched his broad shoulders for support as he sucked on my nipples, one and then the other. I still had a hard time believing this was happening, a part of me convinced that at any moment I’d wake up from this impossible dream and find myself alone in bed. There was a niggling voice in the back of my head that said this could never work and I should stop it before one—or both—of us got hurt, but it was easy to ignore as Hector’s tongue swirled around my nipple.

Only when he’d completely worshipped both breasts did he pull away. Finally I was able to take him in, and naked Hector did not disappoint. His entire body was an ode to masculinity, like he was one of those Greek God sculptures, all nude and glorious. Every inch of his body was big and hard and powerful.

Oh yes.
Every
inch.

I wrapped my fingers around his length, needing to feel him in my hand. He groaned and tossed his head back, and I loved seeing what I did to him with the slightest touch. I wasn’t normally this bold with a guy I’d just met, but then again, we weren’t exactly strangers, were we? I’d known him for years, even if I’d only thought of him as a friend until now. Tonight he’d brought out something reckless and wild in me between his performance on stage, his demanding kisses, and his confession of desire, and I wanted more, more, more.