CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Lucas
A cramp gripping the whole length of my leg woke me.
I knew the consequences of not going through the advised physical therapy sessions. I hadn’t nurtured my rebuilt joints and atrophied muscles back to health, and this was their way to protest. Seize control. I had only my own stubbornness to blame.
Up until last night, I hadn’t really cared. There hadn’t been a reason to. But then, that bastard had kicked me, coming at me from the back, and I’d been on my knees. Gasping for fucking air and incapable of moving, terrified that he’d go after Rosie next, and I wouldn’t have been able to stop him. It had been that fear that had somehow brought me up. Only to find her wielding her purse, like a warrior princess.
My thigh spasmed again, and I winced. Realizing I was on my side and all the weight of my body fell on my bad leg, I tried to roll onto my back. But something stopped me. Peaches.
I peeked down, finding the source of that intoxicating, delicious scent.
Rosie. Her body was cocooned by mine.
We spooned, the back of her head resting against my throat, her back flush against my chest, our thighs pressed together, and her ass nestled in my lap.
Nestled against my morning wood.
Dios. Never had a hard-on felt so good, and never had it been so… inconvenient. Inconvenient for… reasons I couldn’t recall.
Reasons my dick didn’t care for when Rosie’s body was so warm and soft against mine. Reasons that seemed unimportant the more time passed with my arms around her waist, or the higher my palm hiked up her stomach, or the deeper my nose dug into her hair.
Rosie shifted, her ass wiggling in my lap, and my hard-on stood to attention, any remaining trace of sleep dissipating and bringing me fully awake.
A breath left my mouth forcefully, and I had to still myself from doing something crazy, something bad. Something like positioning her body so she would rub against me just right. Just—
Rosie’s hips moved again, sliding along my length and turning my dick to steel.
“Ah, joder,” I breathed out.
Without being able to help myself, I splayed my fingers on her stomach, letting the tops of my fingertips reach her ribs. I needed to stop this, to stop myself, but I couldn’t. Didn’t really want to. Everything in me wanted her closer, fused against me, and that overpowered any good intentions I might have had at some point in the past. That was probably why I couldn’t stop my arms from curling around her, why I couldn’t stop myself from pulling her back, right up against me.
Her breath caught.
“Is this okay, ángel?” I whispered in her ear, feeling like a selfish bastard even when I asked.
A small part of me expected her to complain, hoped that she would turn and ask what the hell I was doing, what kind of liberties I was taking, but a contented sigh left her lips.
“I thought I’d been dreaming,” she said low, so low, her hands coming to grip my forearms and snuggling against me. She fucking snuggled into my hard-on, like there was nowhere else she’d rather be. “But it’s real. You’re here.”
My mouth teased the shell of her ear. “You’re not dreaming; you’re awake.” And because I was in fact a selfish bastard and I had happily learned what it did to her, I made sure to murmur in Spanish, “Buenos días, preciosa.”
A puff of air left her, and her backside shifted again, rubbing herself against my cock. She moved up and down, knowing exactly what she was doing to me.
My lips parted, a groan wanting to escape, my hips dying to move against her, my teeth ready to nibble her ear while I whispered all the things I wanted to do to her.
“Hmm, it still feels like a dream,” she said in a breathy voice that sent more blood straight to my dick, making it pulse with need.
I hummed in response, allowing that hand on her stomach to search for the edge of her top. I slipped my fingers underneath, the contact of our skin heating my blood, obscuring everything but my need for her.
“You feel like a dream, too,” I told her, burrowing my nose in her hair, inhaling slowly. “Smell like one, too.”
A shiver rocked Rosie’s body, and her fingers wrapped around my wrist, urging me to touch her, as if I needed any encouragement.
Letting more of my weight fall on her, I trailed my hand up, up, up, passing her stomach, her ribs, reaching the underswell of her breasts. A groan slipped from my mouth when I was reminded she wasn’t wearing a bra.
Rosie pressed her ass to my cock again, spurring me on. And once more, I didn’t stop myself. I couldn’t when she felt so good against me, under my touch.
The back of my fingers grazed the warm skin, making her shiver. And Lord, it took me less than a second to have my hand cupping the fullness of her breast.
Something close to a “Yes” left her lips and my fingers shifted, the pad of my thumb flicking over her nipple.
I wanted to hear that yes again, but louder. Clearer. Leaving her mouth in a cry of pleasure, followed by my name. I wanted to fuck all of that right out of her. But there was something I was forgetting. Something that—
Fuck.
“Rosie,” I rasped out. “Your brother’s sleeping on the couch, less than fifteen feet away.”
Her head shook, her back arching further, luring me right back into the haze, pushing me closer and closer to a point of no return.
“He sleeps like the dead,” she slurred.
My index finger joined my thumb, closing around her nipple, and I wanted to roar in frustration at knowing that I couldn’t tease her as hard or as long as I wanted. That I’d need to stop myself soon.
Rosie whimpered very softly, her ass now moving up and down in my lap, teasing my cock with swaying motions.
Taking my hand off her breast with what took all my goddamn willpower, I stilled her roughly against me.
I counted down to three.
“Rosie,” I warned her, bringing my mouth to her ear. Grazing my teeth over the sensitive skin, even when I shouldn’t have. “You need to stop that.”
But she didn’t. She moved again, making my cock swell and pulse with a blinding wave of need. “But it feels so good,” she mumbled, sounding out of breath. “Doesn’t it feel good for you, too?”
It did.
“Preciosa,” I growled in her ear. “It feels fucking amazing.” And I shouldn’t have, I really shouldn’t have, but I thrusted against her. Just once. “So good I’ll come in my sweats if you keep this on.”
“That’s not a bad thing,” she answered quickly, need coating her hushed words. “I like that.”
She tried to move again, but I managed to stop that, turning her and pinning her with the full weight of my body. And I felt the shift, the moment it registered in her how much she loved being pinned under me. A moan rumbled in her chest.
I cursed myself.
“You love this, beautiful Rosie?” I heard myself whispering, locking her between me and the mattress. She nodded, her breathing turning labored, hectic. “You love giving me control, having me all over you?” Another nod. And without being able to stop myself, I thrusted against her ass again. One last stroke. The last one. “It’d feel so good if I made you come like this, Rosie.”
Rosie whimpered, loudly this time, making the blood traveling straight to my dick swirl with desperation. I covered her mouth.
And that—
Fuck. That didn’t help, because her body was now melting like fucking butter left out in the sun.
“Rosie,” I said, voice low, so low I didn’t recognize it. “I’m not going to make you come with your brother within earshot. Sorry, preciosa. I’m sorry.”
And I was, God knew I was.
Rosie nodded her head in understanding, and when her eyes opened, I let go of her mouth.
I brushed my lips over her temple. “When I make you come, I’ll want to hear those moans.” I trailed my mouth down until I reached her jaw, and I nibbled at the soft line. I left soft kisses all along that beautiful line. “If I make you come, I need to hear you calling my name.”
And then, I did one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do: I ripped myself off her.
Slowly, I rolled onto my back, my leg thanking me for the shift, and my dick… tenting the comforter.
Rosie turned on her side to face me, eyes roaming up and down my body. She licked her lips, and I heard myself letting out a harsh breath.
“Ángel,” I breathed out. “Keep looking and licking your lips like that but please, please don’t reach out and touch me because I—” I’d lose it. I’d one hundred percent lose it. I wouldn’t fucking care who was in the room. I’d make her scream my name.
“I’ll be good,” she answered.
And why did that make me want to… do bad things to her?
My dick twitched.
Keep it together, I told myself. Think unsexy things. Like trash cans. Or… that time Taco had diarrhea.
“Lucas?”
I glanced back at her, finding her lips curled into a smile, and it hit me like a ton of bricks how beautiful she was in the mornings. In this light. In my bed. “Yeah?”
She tucked her hands beneath her cheek. “I really wish this apartment had a few more walls.”
I huffed a laugh. “Yeah. I’m not a big fan of these fancy Brooklyn studio apartments, either, Ro.”
She chuckled softly.
“I am a fan of the views, though,” I added, looking straight into her eyes. “Big fan of them.”
That blush that made her so uniquely her reappeared. “You’re so full of compliments today, Mr. McConaughey.”
“I live to make you swoon.”
My mind returned to last night when we’d kissed. Something had snapped in two the moment her mouth met mine. I wasn’t oblivious; it had been simmering between us for a long time but it had solidified on that rooftop.
We needed to talk about that. I had promised her honesty, and I didn’t want Rosie to think that it hadn’t meant anything to me, or that I was ignoring it. But I wanted to do this right—where Rosie was concerned, I needed to do right by her—and now it wasn’t the best moment to talk about it.
“I need to pick up Taco from Lina and Aaron’s.”
She nodded. “I should probably wake Olly and head to Dad’s,” she said, confirming that there were much more urgent things to deal with. “Long day ahead.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” I asked.
“I’d love to introduce you to my dad, but maybe under better circumstances.” She seemed to think of something. “How about we call Lina and ask if she can drop Taco off? You should stay in today, rest.”
I nodded, swallowing hard. “You’re probably right.”
“I’m always right. So… will you ask Lina to come?”
I rolled my eyes.
She laughed, and it was a magical sound. “Don’t make me fight you over this, Lucas Martín. I will win.”
It was my turn to smile. “Don’t threaten me with a good time, Rosalyn Graham.”
Her mouth opened but before she could say anything, a different voice spoke up in the room.
“Rosie?” Olly called from the couch, stifling whatever had been between us. “You up?”