Back to December (Ward Sisters Book 1) (12 page)

He kissed her and nodded. He kissed her again, his expression turning from playful to passionate, and they reversed roles this time, with Emily on top. As she came down from her bliss, he pulled her to his chest. She wiggled a little, liking the feeling of him still inside her as her pleasure subsided.

He winced. “Don't do that. Too much.”

She smiled and looked at him, kissed his lips sweetly. “I'm too much for you?”

He tried not to laugh. “Stop that or else the condom is going come off inside you.”

She looked at him in horror.

“Just hold still.” He held it in place. “Now you can get up.”

She collapsed back on the bed as he got rid of the condom. “Has that happened to you before?”

“Not often. Once or twice. You figure out pretty quickly that it's going to happen and if you're fast enough, you can prevent it.”

Emily was mortified. She wasn't on the pill and had always relied on condoms for birth control. If one got stuck inside her...she hated to think what might happen then.

“Let's keep that from happening.”

Rob closed the drawer to the nightstand and shut off the lights. He crawled into bed next to her and pulled the blankets over them both. He snuggled close to her, scooping her into his arms and curling himself to spoon her. She sighed.

“Don't worry,” he said, “I won't lose a condom in you, I promise. Let's get some sleep. You've got another long day tomorrow and I don't know about you, but I'm spent.”

She murmured her agreement.

They were lying there for a few minutes and she had nearly drifted off to sleep, when Em heard Rob whisper, “I hope you're planning to stick around a while. You've ruined me for other women, Emily.”

She wasn't even sure if she replied aloud, but in her head she said, “I'm not going anywhere.”

Minneapolis, Minnesota, one day before Christmas Eve...

Emily shook herself from the haze of sleep as dawn tried desperately to break. Strong, warm arms held her. She smiled. Rob had slept with her in his arms all night.

She turned to look at him, what little she could see in the near dark. His face was so relaxed in sleep. Not that he seemed stressed, in general, but there was such an innocence about him in this state. When she traced his lips with her fingers, he stirred. He blinked a few times and smiled.

“Oh, good. That wasn't a dream.”

Em huffed a little laugh. “What did you think was a dream?”

“All of it.” He kissed her gently. “You're really here, in my bed.”

“Mmm. Yes,” she said as she snuggled into his warmth. “I'm a little disappointed that I didn't sleep with you the first night.”

“Wishing we had sex sooner?” He held her tighter.

She chuckled. “That too. If my family was going to think that anyway, I should have gotten pleasure out of the deal. But I meant I wish I had slept in your bed. You kept me warm and toasty all night.”

Rob moved away just a little and kissed her, gentle at first. But Em couldn't help it, she had to deepen the kiss in her response. She tugged at his lips with her own, slid her tongue into his mouth. One of his hands threaded through her hair, pulling her mouth more eagerly toward his own. The other ran down her back and across her buttocks, dragged her leg over his hip. He pressed his pelvis toward her center, and she could feel it, the hardness she had so enjoyed between her legs the night before.

Calmer heads prevailed, and before she could even ask him, he reached for the drawer and the condoms.

She could hear the condom wrapper being torn open. In the light that bled through the edges of the curtains, she could just see him as he rolled it down his length. She sighed.

Now that she knew what he could do to her, the anticipation was perceptible. She got wet just thinking about it, which was an entirely new sensation. She had
never
gotten that excited
waiting
for sex. Nonetheless, Rob got her ready.

Will I ever be able to just take him inside me without advanced preparation?
she wondered.

He kissed her neck sensually, teased her nipples with his tongue and his lips, slid his fingers inside her. And he kissed her. She loved kissing him, loved the feel of his mouth on hers as his tongue danced and sparred with her own. He could make her want him just by kissing her, and that never, ever happened with Josh. How did she think sex was good with Josh when it took so much...effort? It should be like this, the wanting so tangible that there was an element of desperation in it. Especially at this stage.

And desperate was what she felt in that moment, that she needed him inside her. It was such a novel concept, to want sex so much. She wasn't one of those women who felt sex was something to endure. She did
like
it. But she never craved it before. And with Rob, she craved him, urgently needed him to push inside her.

“Rob, I need you. Now. Please,” she breathed.

“Are you ready?” He knew the answer.

“Yes! Please! Now, I need you now.”

And with that, he breached her folds and she thought she would die from the pleasure.

“Oh, yes. Please.”

He pushed slowly inside, letting her take him just a little faster than he did the first couple of times. Her body was learning his, remembered his. And it wanted him to move. When he got to the end, he pressed just a little.

“Like you did last night,” she breathed.

“You liked that, did you?” Rob whispered in Em's ear, nibbled her earlobe as he rotated his hips slightly.

“Yes. Yes I did. I loved it. Please. Don't make me beg.”

“You'd beg?”

“Yes! Don't make me.”

“I won't make you.”

And with that, he got to work. In and out, he ground his hips into her each time he got to the end. Teasing as he kissed her neck, her lips. He pinned her arms above her head with one hand and used the other to lift her hips so that he penetrated even further. She gasped. Rob covered her mouth with his own. Emily moaned and groaned her pleasure.

When he pulled away from her mouth to get some air, she said, “Oh, God. You're amazing.”

He whispered in her ear, “I told you that you don't have to call me God.”

Em laughed. “Stop it. You're breaking my concentra...” and then she felt it, felt the orgasm rush through her. She didn't even know it was happening until it was right on top of her.

“Oh, Rob!” she cried as it shattered her.

He followed soon after, picked up his pace and pressed into her as he climaxed, moaned her name. She was so floored by her own bliss that she wasn't sure if she heard him say, “I love you” or if she had imagined it.

Because it was too terrifying to contemplate, she went with auditory hallucination.

Both of their breaths hitched as he pulled out and collapsed on the bed beside her. They were both panting.

After a couple minutes, she said, “You are...hmmm...yeah. Okay. Never mind. My brain is still fuzzy.”

He laughed. “Me too. We should probably avoid having sex if we have to actually be coherent within a half hour.” She laughed in return.

Just then, she heard a muffled rendition of Tommy Tutone. “At least she's got better timing this morning,” Rob noted. He rifled through his pants for his phone.

He tapped the screen to answer. “Hi, Jen.” He was still a little out of breath. “No. Not interrupting. Yes, she's here. Yes, in my bed. Do you really want to know that? I didn't think so. What's going on?” He listened for a minute, rubbed the heel of his hand into his eye. He was very sexy, standing there buck naked.

“Okay, thanks. No. No, you can call Barry later. Just make sure he knows for the interviews today. I'll call Amy. Well, I have to tell her that Emily is my girlfriend, anyway. Yes. Yes. No, it's not true, but that's not going to matter, much. Right. No, she can call her family, but I'm sure they've seen it, since they saw the video before you did yesterday. No, Jen, I told you, don't do that. It's fine, Emily is fully aware now. Yesterday it caught her off guard. Okay. Yes. I'm sure. Yep. You too. Later.”

The light was stronger now. Emily looked at him quizzically. “I take it there has been another Emily and Rob bomb dropped on the internet?”

“Yeah. Jen said that the latest is that I broke up your relationship with Josh, that we were an item before the two of you were really through. Supposedly, there are 'sources close to the couple' saying it. Which can mean they're making it up completely or it can mean that someone, somewhere, is spreading rumors. I've got the premiere coming up in a few weeks so I've got press to do today. We have to decide if it's okay if they ask about us.”

“We? Meaning you and me or your publicity team?”

“Both. But don't think that means you don't have a say. If we're okay with the interviewers asking, then Amy will decide if it's a good move. If we aren't okay with it, then she'll tell them it's off the table. Either way, we decide first and then she just determines if it's something that should be out there. That's the way it will always be.”

“So, if I say that I don't want interviewers to ask you about us, then they can't?”

“They can try to do it anyway, but it'll get their interview shut down, so most of the time, they comply. Some of them will write stuff based on my reaction to things, but most of them like to keep in good with Amy so they listen. She blacklists people and she holds a grudge. She's a kickass publicist. Much better than the wuss who did the job before her.”

Emily looked away. She wasn't sure she wanted their relationship to be quite that public, especially when it wasn't entirely a lie that she started falling for Rob before she had formally severed ties with Josh. Just the fact that she was falling for him was overwhelming, but to have to share that with the world? She wasn't ready for that.

Rob lay down next to her and stroked her hair. “Hey.” She turned back to him. “We don't ever have to let them in. They don't ever have to be allowed to ask. I get it if you're not comfortable with it being out there right now. If you're just not ready to have this publicly acknowledged, we can tell them it's off the table until it's something you want.”

“I just...I know I said I don't care what my family thinks, but that's not entirely true. I care what they think, I just don't want it to dictate my life anymore. I don't want them to think I'm flaunting this. I want it, Rob. I want to be with you. I want to be your girlfriend. And if the tabloids want to say that, I can't stop them. But I'm not ready to let legitimate reporters into our lives. I at least owe Josh enough respect not to rub it in his face. It's bad enough that if he ever sees me with you, he'll know straight away that I feel things for you that I never felt for him.”

And with that, she had to turn away again before she cried. Because it was almost too much. She had admitted too much.

Rob turned her face gently back toward his. “Okay. We'll do whatever you want.”

He kissed her. He wouldn't push her, wouldn't make her talk more about how hard and fast she was falling for him. But she could see it in his eyes, it made him happy. She'd acknowledged that her feelings were as strong as his own.

Emily had thought that maybe it was the chemistry between her and Rob which made the sex so great. That the reason she always believed it was good with Josh and had been wrong wasn't a reflection on Josh's bedroom skills. It wasn't even about the chemistry with Josh.

It was a commentary on how deeply Em felt for him.

Because, she realized, if she felt for Josh even half of what she already felt for Rob, then maybe their sex life would have been better. She was connecting in bed with Rob on a level she never reached with Josh in all the time she had known him. It told Emily two things:

That she had probably never been in love with Josh.

And she was already falling in love with Rob.

The rest of the morning passed quickly. Soon, room service brought breakfast and Rick had arrived to take Em back to her room to get ready for work. By the time she left for the museum, Liam was there to accompany her. She didn't even question about the car, just headed toward that entrance, smiled at Mo when he opened the door and made room for Liam.

Her bodyguard looked at her quizzically.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing. It's not my place to make comments.”

“We're going to be spending a lot of time together, Liam, spit it out.”

“So you agreed to be his girlfriend.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You're suddenly very compliant. Like you know you don't have much choice. Even once you realized it was fruitless last night, you were still resistant. You're not doing that anymore.”

“And that tells you I agreed to be his girlfriend?”

“It tells me that you accepted having a bodyguard. Which means something changed. I'm just assuming that he wanted you to be his girlfriend and you said yes.”

“Why would you assume that?”

“Because I know him, Emily. He doesn't do casual. If he wasn't gaga over you, he wouldn't have even talked to you. Why do you think he hasn't had a date in over three years? It's not because women don't want him. People try to set him up all the time, but he never budges. He got burned once, and since then, he refuses to even go on a date with someone unless he thinks it can lead somewhere.”