LuckoftheDraw (4 page)

She expected her hands to be shaking as they stepped over
the threshold of her room, but as he closed the door and turned the lock she
realized her hands were steady, warm and dry. The prospect of spending the
night with Alex wasn’t the least bit awkward or frightening the way she might
have expected. In fact, she was looking forward to it after that little
exchange they’d had by the fireplace, wasn’t she?

She turned and found him watching her with an expression she
couldn’t quite read.

Something came loose low in her belly and rolled with
melted, liquid heat through her entire being. She closed the distance between
them, wrapped her arms around his neck and brought his face down to hers.

There it was, the wow she’d been hoping for when Michel
kissed her earlier. Only it was more than wow, the press of Alex’s mouth on
hers. The rush she experienced at the exquisite feel of his warm, firm lips and
the luscious taste of him was as incredible as it was unexpected. And when he
offered his tongue and she accepted, the kiss rocketed so far beyond wow.

It was skinny dipping in the neighbor’s pool in the middle
of a hot summer night and not getting caught.

It was new ballet slippers, a puppy
and
a pony on
Christmas.

It was fucking cosmic is what it was.

A dozen different scenarios had run through Alex’s mind as
they’d made their way up the stairs to Petra’s bedroom. The worst of them
involved an awkward silence once they got there, followed by Petra giving him a
sympathetic look and saying, “Lexi, we can’t do this and you know it.”

But she hadn’t
said
anything, and he had not been
expecting that.

If he’d thought watching her from afar made him nutty, it
was nothing compared to finally kissing her. The hot, hungry tangling of her
tongue with his shot through him like a bullet. She took him deep, opened wide
and submitted with a whimper, retreated to bite his lip, then let him surge
back with more force.

He’d held her in his arms countless times, but nothing could
have prepared him for the way she moved against him, going up on her toes and
gripping his shoulders tight, then sliding down his body as though she was weak
in the knees. She was taut and strong and somehow delicate and fragile all at
the same time.

It was going to send him straight to the madhouse.

Her haunting eyes were wide when she drew back.

“How has that never happened before now?” she whispered. Her
lips were blood-red again and parted slightly, her breathing quick and a little
ragged. Her nimble fingers were working the buttons of his shirt with an
astonishing speed.

“Jude,” he reminded her with a single word.

She stopped and her expression went icy.

“Do not say his name. Not tonight. Not ever in this room.”

Once she’d decided she was finished mourning Jude and his
sudden exit, she’d eliminated all traces of him with an almost surgical precision.
She’d thrown out the mattress they’d slept on, donated every piece of her
bedroom furniture to the Salvation Army and completely redecorated the room.
Anything he’d left behind that reminded her of him had been boxed up and
donated with the furniture or given to his family.

“It won’t happen again,” he said, hoping desperately that he
hadn’t just ruined the mood.

He hadn’t. Thank God.

She shoved his shirt off his shoulders, pushed it to the
floor and came back up on her toes for more. The way she was sliding her warm
hands over his chest and raking her short nails over his skin as she fed off
his mouth was making him lightheaded. And when she pinched one of his nipples
hard he nearly lost his balance.

Her lithe body felt so right in his arms, but he was afraid
to touch her anywhere not covered by her dress because his hands had gone
clammy. And while the rest of his body was on fire, his cock did not seem to be
getting the message that he had her.

He fucking had her.

She felt better than he’d imagined in his wildest fantasies
and his dick was apparently going to be fashionably late, which was quickly
starting to piss him off. It was always the first to arrive and the last to
leave the party. He prayed it wasn’t going to be a no-show for the first time in
his life, but sure enough, not only was there absolutely nothing happening
below the belt, he was fairly sure his balls had shrunk back up into his body
as well.

She pushed off his chest and took a few steps backward. He
watched as if he was in a dream as she reached for the ties at the back of her
neck. Her dress came free and the whole thing slid to the floor in a whisper of
fabric. The air completely rushed out of Alex’s lungs. His pulse throbbed heavy
in his throat as he took in the sight of her naked.

Her fair skin was flawless over every inch of her sleek body
from the tips of her delicate fingers to the ends of her pretty toes. Her small
breasts were firm and high with dark nipples that pointed upward slightly,
inviting him to come and get ‘em. Her waist nipped in just a little over her
narrow hips and her pussy…well, that beauty was shaved clean as a whistle.

“Fuck me,” he whispered reverently, closing his sweaty hands
into fists.

Her lips twitched into the slightest of naughty smirks.
“Okay.”

They both stepped forward at the same time, slamming
together with a collective outward rush of breath. Their mouths clashed and
they clutched at each other gracelessly. He wrapped an arm around her, digging
the fingers of his free hand into the taut flesh of her ass as he hauled her
close and kissed her even harder than before. She moaned into his mouth and the
sound sent a wave of heat rolling down his spine—a wave that did absolutely
nothing for his useless, pathetic dick.

What the fuck?

“Come on, Lex,” she whisper-panted, pushing back a little
and going for the button on his pants. “Don’t be nervous, baby.” She got the
zipper down and her hand dove inside. Her eyes went wide. “Wow you’re gonna be
a big boy.”

Humiliation started to burn hot in his face when her touch
did nothing to help.

“Pete…” He meant to tell her to stop, but she’d removed her
hand and was already on her knees helping him out of his pants.

She skimmed her hands up his legs, eyes raised to his with
the promise of what she meant to do in their depths. But Alex couldn’t bear it
if she took him into her mouth and he still couldn’t get hard. The fact that
might be a very real possibility made his stomach turn.

He scooped her up and tossed her onto the bed. She went
flying through the air with a surprised whoop and bounced twice before she
settled on the mattress, laughing. He launched himself at her and landed with
his hands and knees on either side of her body. She grabbed him by the ears and
brought his mouth back to hers, wrapping her legs around his waist so he
stretched out on top of her.

Her entire body was incredibly hot to the touch, her pussy
wet and ready where it was pressed to his stomach. She was his wildest dream
come true but he felt as though he was stuck in a nightmare where the one thing
he wanted in the whole world remained just out of reach.

“How did this not happen before?” she asked again when he
buried his face in her neck. She gasped and dug her nails into his scalp when
he bit her. “How, Lex? We’ve spent so many nights in this bed. Oh. God. Damn,”
she said when he shifted and sucked her nipple into his mouth, gripping her
other breast hard.

He could have told her how many nights he’d lain awake with
his cock hard and aching while she slept soundly, unaware. He could have reminded
her that they’d only been friends until she’d stepped into his arms and kissed
him one very short moment ago. Only he didn’t want to talk. He wanted show her
the things he’d spent those long, sleepless nights imagining he was going to do
to her instead.

He shifted again, this time going onto his knees on the
floor beside the bed. He grasped the backs of her calves and pulled her toward
the edge of the mattress. With his hands cradling her ass, he buried his face
between her legs and touched his mouth to her pussy.

Her legs fell open wide when he stroked her with his tongue,
tasting her for the first time. She was slick and salty-sweet and so
unbelievably hot. Heaven.

He sought out and circled the tight little bundle of nerves
of her clit with his tongue and watched her eyes roll back into her head. He
lifted her hips an inch or so off the bed and flicked her back and forth,
lightly at first, and then with more pressure. She reached down and covered his
hands with hers, head turned to one side and eyes closed, her stomach rising
and falling with every panting breath.

It was glorious, watching her writhe and hearing her moan
his name in her rich, velvety voice. The muscles of her legs began to quiver
the closer he brought her to orgasm. When she gasped and pulled her thighs
together suddenly, she just about boxed his ears in, making him laugh against
her.

Petra wiggled out of his grip with a harshly whispered
“fuck.” She sat up and grabbed his hair and attempted to haul him back up the
bed. “Now,” she demanded.

He got hold of her legs and tried to dump her onto her back
again. “Let me finish.”

“No.” She squirmed out of his grasp and went up on her knees
in front of him. “Finish inside of me,” she demanded, pulling on his arms this
time.

He was definitely going to be sick. Fate was certainly a
twisted bitch, wasn’t she?

At first Petra couldn’t figure out what was happening. One
moment she’d been primed to go off, her singular focus getting him onto the bed
and inside her, and then nothing was happening at all.

He put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her down
so she was sitting on her heels. It wasn’t until he rested his forehead on her
knees and groaned that she understood exactly what was happening.

“Still nothing?”

He shook his head.

She covered her mouth with one hand and closed her eyes,
trying desperately to control the heat raging inside her so she could think a
little more clearly. It wasn’t easy, but Alex’s stalled engine was obviously
having a far worse effect on him than putting on the brakes was going to have
on her.

After a moment she opened her eyes and brushed his hair to
one side.

“Maybe we just don’t have the right chemistry.”

She knew it was a lie even as the words were coming off her
lips. If the way he made her feel wasn’t chemistry, then she had no idea what
the word really meant.

He shook his head again, just a little twitch of denial that
made her smile.

She ran her hands up and down his back as she struggled to
find the right thing to say. Then, for the first time in the entirety of their
friendship, she told him what she thought he might want to hear. “Alex, honey,
it happens to everyone.”

He sat up straight and pinned her with a look so vicious it
caused a delicious little shiver of fear to run down her spine. After a moment
he leaped to his feet and snatched his pants off the floor, muttering to
himself. She caught words like “sick” and “creepy” and “so fucking wrong” here
and there, but mostly he sounded like the guy who sometimes hung around outside
the hospital, gibbering to no one in particular.

“Don’t you dare walk out on me,” she said, climbing off the
bed on shaky legs.

He dropped heavily into the chair next to her dresser and
shoved one foot into the wrong leg of the pants. She snatched them out of his
hand and sent them sailing over the bed, where they landed out of sight on the
opposite side.

Alex was big, strong and the most agile man she’d ever met.
If he’d wanted to get his pants back she wouldn’t have been able to stop him,
but apparently he didn’t really want them. He sat back in the chair and gave
her an angry, dejected look.

She held up her hands. “Fine. ‘It happens to everyone’ was
the worst thing I could possibly have said. Please excuse me. I’m not thinking
clearly.” His eyes followed her as she knelt between his feet and sat back on
her heels again, her hands on his knees. “But I can’t help you if you run out
of here without talking to me.”

His eyes were burning into hers. He was silent so long she
started to squirm before he said, “Can we put our clothes back on first?”

Self-conscious Alex—someone entirely new to her—was
adorable, but it was unlikely he would find it funny if she did something silly
like giggle at that moment.

So she simply told him, “No.”

“But—” His eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open when
she grasped a few of the coppery-blond hairs on his knee and gave them a little
tug. “
Ow.
”

“Tell me what’s sick and wrong about what was just
happening, because it didn’t feel like either of those things on my end.”

He looked away but didn’t answer.

“Do you think we’ve been friends too long, that we’re trying
to jump from that to lovers too quickly?”

He snorted once softly and his eyes closed. “That’s
definitely not it.”

She gave his leg a little shake when he didn’t say anything
else.

After a pause his eyes opened and he looked at her. “Petra,
I’m in love with you.”

The world went silent, as though time had simply stopped.
She heard no sound, felt not a single heartbeat, took in not so much as a
breath for a moment.

She knew that, didn’t she? In that second every moment he’d
made that clear to her without actually speaking the words came rushing to the
forefront of her memory.

“Is that all?” she asked and didn’t know where the words had
come from.

He narrowed his eyes and leaned forward, elbows on thighs,
his face close to hers.

“Is that all?” he repeated. He opened his mouth as though he
meant to say something else, then closed it with an incredulous shake of his
head. He stood and stepped around her. “I have to get out of here. Everything
about this night is wrong, and it’s only getting worse.”

Petra dropped her hands to the floor and hung her head.

“Tell me why.” She spoke loudly so he would hear her over
the noise he was making, stomping and muttering as he moved around her room.

“It’s wrong because I should have told you long before
tonight. Long before I had you naked and was doing…
that
to you.” There
was a loud snap of fabric. “It’s creepy because I’ve been pining for you,
pretending I was absolutely all right with being your friend for years, but all
I really wanted was for Jude to go away. And then he did and what did I do
about it? Abso-fucking-lutely nothing.”

Petra stood very slowly. He was standing on the opposite
side of the bed where she’d thrown his pants earlier. She turned in time to see
him hop once, then twice, as he pulled those tight corduroys up over his ass.
With his back to her she was sure he didn’t know she caught the rear view of
him tucking in his business as well.

A quick shiver racked her body as she imagined how different
things would be if that business of his had decided to join the party.

He turned and started coming around the foot of the bed.
When he saw her standing there watching him he stopped, pants half-zipped and
button still undone, and seemed to deflate a little.