Chapter 1: No More Pretending
The hotel door clicked shut, sealing them in a silence that hummed with everything left unsaid for years. City light bled through the curtains, painting silver lines across the rumpled bed and the tense space between them.
“So,” Maranda breathed, her back against the door, heart hammering against her ribs. “This is happening.”
Cole’s gaze was dark, intense, stripping away the last fragments of their friendly pretence. “It’s only been happening in my head for a decade.” He closed the distance, his hand finding the curve of her waist, warm and certain through the thin silk of her dress. “Tell me to stop.”
“Don’t you dare.” Her voice was a challenge, a whisper. She reached for the hem of her own dress, dragging it up over her hips. “I’m done waiting.” The fabric whispered to the floor, pooling at her ankles. The cool air kissed her skin, raising goosebumps, but his look was pure heat, tracing every newly exposed line of her.
“Fuck, Miranda.” His voice was rough, reverent. He hooked a finger in the lace of her panties, snapping the delicate strap against her hip. “These are a problem.” He didn’t ask, just knelt, his calloused palms sliding up the backs of her thighs as he lowered the last barrier. The damp lace caught on her knees before she stepped free.
His breath hitched. “Look at you.” He didn’t touch her with anything but his words and his hot stare, drinking in the sight of her bare cunt, the neat thatch of dark curls glistening for him. “You’re so fucking wet already.” He leaned in, his nose nudging through her folds, inhaling deeply. “You smell like want. My want.”
Then his tongue, broad and flat, licked a ruthless, wet stripe from her opening all the way up to her clit. She cried out, fingers tangling in his hair, anchoring herself as he buried his face between her legs. He ate her like a starving man, his tongue fucking into her, then swirling tight, frantic circles around that swollen bud. He dragged his stubble against her inner thigh, the slight burn a perfect counterpoint to the slick, desperate suction of his mouth.
“Cole, yes, right there, don’t stop—” Her words dissolved into a shattered moan as his fingers joined, two pushing inside her tight heat, crooking up to find that spot that made her legs shake. He fucked her with his mouth and his hand, relentless, until her hips bucked against his face and a raw, guttural scream was torn from her throat. Pleasure whitewashed her vision, her knees giving way.
He caught her, lifting her like she weighed nothing, and carried her to the bed.
He laid her down on the cool duvet, his eyes never leaving hers as he tore his own clothes off. The city’s glow traced the hard lines of his shoulders, the defined muscles of his stomach, and the thick, urgent length of his cock standing rigid against his hip.
“My turn,” he growled, climbing over her, his weight a delicious anchor.
She reached between them, her fingers wrapping around his heat, stroking him once, slowly, feeling him pulse in her hand. “This what you dreamed about?”
“Every fucking night.” He nudged her thighs wider with his knee, the blunt head of his cock pressing against her wet, opened folds. He didn’t enter, just rocked there, coating himself in her, the friction maddening. “Tell me you want it.”
“I want you to stop talking and fuck me, Cole.” She arched her hips, trying to take him in, but he held back, teasing.
“Not yet.” He lowered his mouth to her breast, sucking her nipple deep, biting just enough to make her gasp. His hand slid back between her legs, fingers circling her clit again, fast and rough. “Come again first. I wanna feel you clamp down on me.”
The command, the skilled pressure of his fingers, the sight of his dark head at her breast—it was too much. Her climax ripped through her, sharper than the first, a wave of pure electric surrender.
SHE MOANS LOUDLY, the sound tearing through the quiet room, raw and unfiltered.
Before the last tremor left her body, he was pushing into her, a slow, devastating invasion that stretched her perfectly. “Christ, you’re tight,” he choked out, his forehead dropping to hers, his entire body trembling with the effort to go slow. She felt every inch, thick and hot, filling her completely.
“Move,” she begged, clawing at his back. “Please, Cole.”
He obeyed, withdrawing almost completely before sinking back in with a deep, rolling thrust that stole her breath.