The Dirty Anthology (9 page)

9

I’ve been hit many times in my life. Mentally. Emotionally. I’m no stranger to pain in all its myriad forms, have experienced every level of it from a measly one to a devastating ten.

Lexi’s lips linger on my skin for a second longer than they should, the corner of her mouth pressed intimately to the corner of mine.

I hear her surprised inhale when she realizes what she’s done. She moves to pull away and it hits me: I’ve never felt this kind of agony before. Nothing’s ever come close.

She can’t take this away from me.

I won’t let her.

My hand snaps around the back of her neck, stopping her. Her face is mere inches from my own. So beautiful that I just want to nuzzle it.

Later. First, I need those lips back on my skin.

“Andrew?” She stares into my eyes, curious.

I see the hunger in her eyes, the one that almost matches my own.

It’s enough. A start. I’ll make her burn as much as I do by the time I’m through with her.

I lean in and brush the tip of my nose across hers. “I need your lips, Lexi.” She will never know how much.

“A—Andrew . . . we shouldn’t.”

She’s so fucking right.

I pluck the necklace out of her hand and blindly dump it back into the gift bag. “Tell me you don’t want me to kiss you,” I say, staring right into her eyes.

Those glasses she’s wearing look so sexy on her.

Somehow, she’s keeping them on while I do her. No matter how rough it gets.

Her hands wrap around my shoulders. “I . . . can’t say that.”

Exactly the answer I expected.

The one I wanted.

God help us both.

“Baby, I’m going to kiss you,” I breathe against her lips.

Her last warning. This is her last chance to say no.

Her eyes slide closed.

Groaning, I fit my lips to hers. My entire body jerks at the first, silky contact.

It’s like I waited my entire fucking life to feel those lips.
Fuck. How did I ever live without this girl’s mouth?

I don’t press for more, leaving our lips meshed together, taking every breath that leaves her into myself. My blood has never pounded so brutally through my veins; my dick has never been this hard.

I want her tongue more than I want my next breath, but I won’t be able to handle feeling it. Not without pinning her beneath me and taking everything she has to give.

Lexi shudders and my body responds with a shudder of its own.

I give her bottom lip one more peck and move back, ending our kiss. I can’t go further. Too many things are roaring in my head. Things I need from her that can’t happen right now.

She grabs onto my neck, my jaw, bringing me back to her mouth.

Holy shit. I can’t resist this.

Her tongue slips inside.

A moan is torn from me, my self-control along with it. I cup her face, my tongue playing wetly with hers.

Lexi.
This is fucking Lexi kissing me, and when a small moan leaves her, my entire body reaches a breaking point.

I have to stop kissing her. If I don’t, I’m going to fuck her. Right here. I don’t even know how far she’s gone.

I haven’t taken her on a date yet.

She deserves so much better than to be fucked on a couch in the office of a gym.

Lexi latches onto my bottom lip, sucking on it repeatedly. Soothing it with her tongue. Like it’s her little play thing.

My pulse explodes everywhere inside me.

“Lexi . . . fuck. Wait,” I whisper, too out of breath to speak any louder.

She lets me end our kiss and sits there, panting—eyes heavy-lidded, cheeks pinks, lips swollen from my kisses.

Oh God. My fucking cock hurts so bad. I want her hands on it.
Now
.

Suddenly, she gasps, a horrified expression taking over her face. Her hand flies up, fingertips pressing to the lips I just kissed. “Shit. What did I just do? God. I’m sorry. Why’d I do that? You have a girlfriend!” She shoots off the couch.

10

I jump up after her.

Lexi paces across the small office space. “Stupid. I’m so stupid. Why would I do something like that?”

I grab her shoulders. “Listen to me. Stop blaming yourself.
I
kissed you.”

“Why did you?”

That’s a question I definitely shouldn’t answer. Not here. Not under these circumstances.

I have no choice. Her big eyes remain on mine, waiting for an answer, and they’re both curious and vulnerable.

Us guys? We play with girls. That’s what we do. Girls hate us for it, but most are so desperate to have us in their lives that they let us get away with anything. With women being so willing to forgive us, why should we change?

This isn’t the first time I’ve cheated on Kaylee. Hell, no. She knows I have, too. Oh, she was furious when she found out, but she came chasing after
me
when I tried to end it.

But Lexi . . . if she was my girl, I wouldn’t play with her, cheat on her.

Shit. I really wouldn’t. The thought of hurting her in any way makes me sick.

God help me. I think I love this girl.

Shaken by that revelation—and feeling absolutely fucking stupid because I’m just admitting this now—I cup her face.

Fuck. I hope she can’t tell that my hands are trembling.

“I . . . “ Have no idea what to tell her without divulging what it is that I really feel for her. Too soon for that. At the very least though, I can go with some honesty. I don’t like the idea of her thinking I’m just playing with her. “I like you, Lexi. Have for a while. When I felt your lips . . . I just couldn’t stop myself.”

Her eyes soften momentarily.

My thumbs twitch on her cheeks, aching to smooth over her skin.

But I won’t take more. I refuse. There’s things that have to be straightened out first before I can have her mouth again.

A fact that’s driven home with her next statement.

“You have a girlfriend.” She moves to step back.

Away from me.

I drop my hands to her shoulders, shaking my head. “I’m only with her because my father wanted it.”

Her expression darkens at the mention of my father.

I don’t blame her. “I’m leaving her. I even told my father. He knows it’s you I want.”

At that, her face goes pale. “Andrew, your father hates my family.”

My father has no real reason to hate her family—but he’s always been good at deluding himself like that. He’s fucked you over? Easy fix. All he has to do is convince himself that you somehow deserved what you got. It’s all your fault. He’s just the victim lashing out in the name of retaliation.

He’ll go after Lexi and her mother if
I
get in the way of his plans to unite our family with Kaylee’s. That’s what Lexi’s afraid of. She doesn’t have to say it out loud; I thought it, too.

I drop my hands to grab hers. “I know, and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have told him why I’m leaving Kaylee. I just—forget it.” Pressing my lips together, I stop myself before I can go further, realizing how pointless this is right now.

Until I’m officially single, I can’t be completely honest with Lexi. It wouldn’t be fair to her.

But she doesn’t let it go.

I kind of expected she wouldn’t.

“You just what, Andrew?”

She hasn’t pulled her hands out of mine, letting me rub my thumbs into her skin, and I take comfort in that.

“Andrew?”

I sigh, giving in. There’s no way I can resist telling her the truth. At least part of it. “All I could think about was being single so I could ask you on a date.”

She arches her eyebrow, making me smile. “Just to ask me on a date?”

My smile widens. “To start.”

Her eyes flicker all over my face, pausing at my mouth.

“And when I start dating you, Lexi, I’m not fucking hiding you from anybody.”

Her juicy lips part and my cock throbs painfully for them.

Soon, I’ll have those lips all over my naked body. Wrapped around the swollen tip of my dick.

I throb in my jeans again at the thought, my tip slick against my briefs. Tightening my hands around hers, I breathe through the rush of desire, reminding myself that I’m doing the right thing by waiting.

I’ve never waited for a girl. Never had to. This shit is already proving to be harder than I thought it was going to be. I’ve never done “right” by a girl. I want to with her. The reminder is the only thing that keeps me steady.

She wiggles her fingers, signaling that she wants me to let her hands go. I do, but it takes a shitload more effort than is normal. Smoothing her hands across my shoulders, Lexi steps closer, looking up at me with those sexy, open, vulnerable eyes that somehow scream at me to
do her.

My body shoots tights with tension.

“Are you serious right now? Or are you just playing with me?” she asks softly.

I growl under my breath, angry that she would even think I’d do her like that. “Lexi, I want you to listen to me and listen well.” Pinching her chin, I make her stare into my eyes. “I’ve never wanted anything as much as I want you. And I’m damn well prepared to do anything I have to do to have you.”