Bodychecking (2 page)

Yet, he didn’t dare.

In a futile attempt to ignore Bella, he turned to the gorgeous blonde, cupped her ass in his hands, and lowered his head to taste her lips. She didn’t taste like Bella, nor did she reciprocate like Bella would’ve with her own brand of sexy and passionate. This chick went wild, like some crazed animal in heat, sucking his tongue and squeezing his dick almost painfully while she moaned and ground against him.

Okaaaay
.

Cedric kissed her back, but he wasn’t feeling it. He should be. She smelled great, had an incredible rack, fantastic ass, and a luxurious mane of hair. Her body was made for fucking, and Cedric had availed himself of countless women with similar assets and been more than satisfied.

He slid one more glance to Bella, who had closed her eyes and was thrusting her hips in time to the frenzied music. If Cedric didn’t sink his dick into a woman soon, he’d be sinking his fist into those assholes’ pretty faces.

“Let’s go somewhere and fuck,” he whispered in the blonde’s ear. Maybe then he’d feel it.

“I thought you’d never ask.” The nameless woman gazed up at him with desire-glazed eyes and nodded. Cedric grabbed her hand and dragged her toward the bar. He pulled out a big bill and waved it at the bartender. Seconds later, they were naked in a VIP room. In an impressive display of flexibility, the blonde lay across a small table, spread her legs wide and raised them over her head, no bend in her knees, and her toes were pointed.

Cedric rolled on a condom with his usual efficiency and moved between her legs. Obviously, foreplay wasn’t expected. Eyes squeezed tightly shut, he tried to picture Bella in his mind.

But this woman wasn’t Bella in any way, shape, or form.

And his body knew it even more than his brain did.

Shaking his head and mumbling an apology, Cedric yanked on his clothes and escaped.

His gaze darted around the club, but Bella had disappeared, leaving two very disappointed dickwads in her wake. They wouldn’t be getting any tonight, and best of all, they wouldn’t be getting Bella.

But then neither would Cedric.

* * * *

Birthdays sucked.

As a child, her parents combined her Christmas and birthday gifts, if and when they remembered to buy gifts at all. She’d learned to keep her expectations low to curb her disappointment after too many childhood hopes and dreams were shot down by a pair of disengaged, free-spirit parents, who Bella had subconsciously emulated—at least, the partying part.

This year’s birthday hit her harder than usual.

Twenty-fucking-six years old
.

She’d rather curl up in bed with a box of chocolates and an ugly cry movie than be subjected to a birthday party tonight, especially one orchestrated by her judgmental oldest sister. Every one of her sisters had their act together, was settled down with a wonderful man, and was looking to the future.

Bella, instead, found herself focusing on the past and how little she’d achieved. She was closer to thirty than twenty, and therein lay the crux of the problem and the reason for her current crappy mood.

Bella bounced from interest to interest, never settling on one thing. She had no direction, but that hadn’t been a big deal in her early twenties. Now it was.

She faked a smile and cocked her head, pretending to be captivated by whatever bullshit was being spouted by the young Seattle Sockeyes hockey players who gathered around her, vying for her attention. Normally, she’d be flattered and completely enjoying their efforts.

Not tonight.

She sought out Cedric in the crowd, still a little peeved at his disappearing act with the blonde last Saturday night. In fact, as soon as he’d slipped into the VIP room, she’d left alone.

He met her gaze, winked, and headed toward her. Her heart skittered with excitement and her lady parts tingled with anticipation. She fought their insane chemistry with every fiber of her being, as futile as it was. Cedric had always been different—the way he touched her, the way he looked at her as if she were special, the way he made her feel as if she were the only woman who mattered. Maybe he made every woman feel like that, maybe it was part of his allure, his charm, and maybe she was delusional for thinking she meant anything more than a fantastic lay. Cedric had the power to ruin her, crush her heart in his skillful hands, and blast away at her carefully constructed, and completely fabricated, air of confidence.

He was oh, so wrong for her.

The only thing Cedric was serious about was hockey. Bella needed a strong and steady guy like each of her sisters had, not a pretty boy who leapt from one adrenaline high to another and matched her on the flakiness scale. She needed a man to balance her, not tip her over the edge.

The first time she’d laid eyes on the handsome Swede, she knew after just one look into those incredible blue eyes, she wanted him. Usually wanting a man for a night or two would be enough. Only every time she swore she had her fill of Cedric, he gave her one of those sexy grins guaranteed to get her naked and him inside her. The lure of those playful blue eyes, brilliant white smile, and shredded body sucked her into a web of need and desire she’d struggled against ever since.

Cedric slid up next to her, slipped an arm possessively around her, and cupped her ass. The boys’ faces fell at his arrival.

“Move over, novices. The master is moving in,” he quipped.

Bella offered a shrug of apology to the disappointed youngsters
and smiled up at Cedric, gracing him with a demure smile rather than her usual playful, naughty smile. He grinned back, gifting her with his trademark wolfish leer.

“Let’s take this party somewhere else,” he whispered in her ear, biting down on her earlobe for emphasis and slipping into their usual foreplay-before-foreplay banter.

Finally, something to distract Bella from her too-serious mood. She moaned and leaned into him, squeezing his ass and gazing up at him with sultry promise.

Mouths hanging open, Cedric’s teammates gaped at them, jealousy etched on every face.

“Watch and learn, boys,” Cedric said with an emphasis on the word
boys.

Bella laughed as he hustled her from the crowded room.

“You’ve been driving me fucking crazy all night in that little dress.”

“Part of my devious plan to get you naked.” She spoke in a throaty, husky whisper guaranteed to harden his dick in a split second.

“I love how you think, especially the deviant and naked part.” He moved closer, crowding her.

“And I love how you fuck.”

He didn’t even flinch at her bluntness. Cedric glanced around as he hauled Bella into a powder room and locked the door behind them. Putting his hands on her waist, he lifted her onto the counter in one smooth motion. Grabbing a condom from his pocket, he unzipped his dress pants and shoved them down his thighs. He sheathed his hard cock in a condom. Bella licked her lips as she stared at his erection, barely able to contain her excitement. Her number-one favorite thing was to have Cedric buried inside her.

He cleared his throat, and she raised her gaze to meet his, realizing she’d been staring and most likely drooling, yet she felt no shame.

“I know. I know, you’re in awe over my massive penis.”

“And your massive ego.” She cocked her head in the direction of his dick.

“One and the same,” Cedric beamed, as if she’d issued a supreme compliment. Before she tossed another teasing insult his way, he stepped between her spread legs, obviously abandoning foreplay in exchange for the main event. She dug her fingers into his bare ass, completely on board with the program.

“You aren’t wearing any panties,” he noted with satisfaction as her dress rode up to her waist and revealed her shaved pussy.

“Merry Christmas. Do you like your gift?” She winked at him, propping her heels on the edge of the counter to give him a better view of the glistening wetness between her legs.

“Best present ever.” He met her gaze. The heat in his blue eyes would melt polar ice caps.

Fully expecting him to plunge deep inside her, he shocked her by pausing at the last second. Leaning in close, he ran his tongue up the side of her neck to her jawline. She tried to turn her head to kiss him, but he held her steady.

“Not yet, sweetheart. Not until I get a guarantee you’ll go with me to Izzy and Coop’s wedding.”

Well, crap.

“You’re asking me out? On a date? Why mess with a good thing?” This was blackmail. They didn’t date, they fucked. It was part of their long-standing agreement.

“Because we can make a good thing even better.”

“I’m the maid of honor, and you’re the best man. Essentially, we’ll be there together.”

“I want more.” The intensity in his gaze caught her off guard and vulnerable. She worked quickly to shore up her defenses and put them back on familiar ground.

“What if I say no?” She forced a teasing tone even though his invitation scared the crap out of her.

“Then you won’t get your present tonight.” Cedric pushed down the straps on her dress and freed her breasts, cupping and kneading them with his fingers.

“You’re a dick,” she groaned, loving the feel of the hockey-roughened callouses on his fingertips abrading her sensitive nipples.

“I’m a big dick.” He winked at her.

Bella rolled her eyes.

“Say yes.”

“I’m not the dating kind, and neither are you.” She panted as she fought to get the words out while he pinched her nipples. Hard. He wasn’t playing fair. Bella wasn’t averse to a little pain, and she was a goner when he pulled and twisted them enough to cause her to squirm and cry out.

“We
weren’t
the dating kind,” he corrected. “You and I are entering challenging new territory.”

“Just fuck me,” she begged as she tried to wrap her legs around his waist.

He stepped out of range, holding her at arm’s length. “Say yes.”

In an attempt to diffuse the situation, she socked him in the arm, but he didn’t give her the satisfaction of flinching.

“You’re going to have to do better than that with this hard body. Say yes,” he insisted.

Bella rolled her eyes. “Fine, yes. Just. Fuck. Me.”

“See, that wasn’t so hard.”

Before she formulated a smartass response, he lunged inside her with one hard, rough stroke. Growling in satisfaction, he thrust in and out, strong enough to lift her butt off the counter with each penetration. Bella dug her spiked heels into his ass and held on tightly, raking her fingernails across his back. She angled her hips to take him deeper, feeling him touch her in places no other man ever had.

“Oh, damn. Fuck. Yes. Cedric. Yes.”

Breathing heavily, he barely missed a stroke when he suddenly pulled out, flipped her onto her stomach, and drove into her from behind. Gripping her waist, he slammed into her again and again, each stroke more savage and frantic than the last, just the way she loved it.

She was going to come and soon.

“Fuck me harder. Now.”

He did.

It’d been a while for them, and he didn’t last, but he sure as hell took her with him. Cedric always took care of her first. He knew all her buttons, all those sweet spots that drove her over the edge, and he used that knowledge to his advantage. Not that she was complaining.

He reached between her legs for her clit and scrubbed it with a sandpaper-rough thumb. All-consuming pleasure stoked the inferno raging inside her, intolerable in its intensity as it built toward an explosion.

“I’m coming,” she cried out, loud enough to be heard by the partygoers. Not that she gave a shit. In fact, they were welcome to watch if they wanted. Right now all that mattered was Cedric riding her into oblivion with his magic dick filling every square inch of her.

He muffled her screams with a hand over her mouth, as they came together in a frenzied rush of mind-blowing passion. Bella shuddered violently. Jolts of pleasure rocked her body and short-circuited rational thought.

Gasping and spent, Cedric collapsed on top of her, pressing his cheek to hers for a moment and closing his eyes, which felt too much like intimacy rather than casual fucking. Bella allowed herself to fall under the spell he wove around her, indulging in the fantasy they could be something special to each other. Her pragmatic side interrupted too quickly, bringing her to her senses.

She extracted herself out from under Cedric’s heavy weight and wriggled away to stand in front of the mirror. She stared at her smudged makeup, thoroughly mussed hair, and flushed face.
Damn.
She
looked
like she’d been fucking. At her sister’s house, no less. Even she should have more decency than that, but the sorry truth was she’d do it again given half the chance.

Izzy would be furious and torture her with the lecture of all lectures if she figured out where the birthday girl had disappeared to.

After combing her hair with her fingers, Bella dabbed at her makeup with a towel. Reflected in the mirror, Cedric now lounged against the opposite wall, arms crossed over his broad chest, and his mouth set in a smug, self-satisfied smirk. He’d pulled up his pants but not bothered to zip them.

As usual, he looked fantastic with his mussed blond hair. His eyes were hooded with lazy contentment. She did a double take as she noted something new in those blue eyes. Undisguised possessiveness. Raw, powerful, and game changing.

She wondered what it would feel like to try out monogamy again and take Cedric up on his offer. Yet, confronting the possibility head-on sent her heart scurrying for cover. She’d never been good at relationships beyond the physical. The few times she’d tried, she’d been played for a fool and sent packing, replaced by a sweeter, classier female—a keeper. On the other hand, Bella was hook and release.

She wasn’t petite. She wasn’t fat either. She was athletic and muscled from working out. She would never be classically beautiful like Izzy, sweetly cute like Emma, or girl-next-door-sexy like Avery. She was Bella, the athlete and tomboy of the bunch. She cleaned up well, but there was always an edge to her, a directness many people didn’t get or understand.

She’d missed the memo on proper behavior and tactful wording. She didn’t have a clue about either, which was where she and Cedric differed. He could charm a hungry pack of she-wolves out of their last meal.