splayed out on either side of his. She was open, so open. And wet. God, the slick sound of her body as it rose up and up until his cockhead sprang free was a sound of beauty. Another slow slide down teased her unbearably—and Will, too, for he grabbed at her hips and took her on a punishing ride.
Her thighs were straining to hold her up as Will drove into her over and over. Soon, she gave up and let him keep her balanced. Trusted him to hold her steady just as he trusted her to be open and ready for him.
Will snaked his arm around her, high on her chest, and it was just thisclose to her neck that she felt vulnerable and shaky.
Her climax hit her without warning. Her hands clutching at his forearm because she didn’t know what to do with them. She was beyond anything but the feel of Will, hot and hard inside her, and the weight of Judd’s gaze as he watched her come apart.
Chapter 8
W hen it was over , when they’d both come down from the crazy high, Will took a minute to fall back into himself. Forehead resting on Melanie’s shoulder blade, breaths coming fast and shallow, he felt the last of the slow tremors leave her body.
After kissing her one last time, a quick press of lips to her bare back, he helped her up, grabbed for the throw on the back of the couch—the one she’d made him for Christmas because she complained she was always cold at his place—and went to take care of the condom.
He hadn’t once made eye contact with Judd after Melanie had performed her little striptease. Hadn’t been focused on anything but making her feel good. And Will didn’t exactly know what to do next.
They’d talked about the rules for during, and way after—like “at the next apartment get-together” or “the next time they went out for a beer” kind of way after—but they’d neglected to negotiate the immediate after.
In the half bath, Will cleaned up, zipped up, and moved to go back into the living room.
He stopped at the threshold when he heard a low voice murmuring and Melanie’s soft, drowsy laughter.
Something in his gut clenched.
Will wasn’t the love ’em and leave ’em type, and he’d known the moment Melanie agreed to become his friend with benefits that he wouldn’t be satisfied with that arrangement for long.
If he were honest with himself, truly honest, for the last six months of his relationship with Amber, he’d been racked with guilt over the infatuation with his new neighbor. Their relationship had been strained for months before that, but when fresh-faced, recent college grad Melanie Robles had moved across the breezeway, that had been it for Will.
And then she’d brought them cookies. A friendly farm girl from southeastern Arizona, Melanie was warm and open. Funny and thoughtful.
When Amber had told him she would not marry him, had told him he could keep the furniture and she was moving out, it had been a blessing. A month or so later, Melanie had been his. Temporarily. Though he’d do anything to make it permanent.
So to see another man talking to Melanie, taking care of Melanie—
Judd walked to the kitchen, Melanie moved to sit up on the couch, and Will finally restarted his brain.
“Everything okay here, honey?”
She laughed again, a little more with it now, and killed him a little when she said, “Men. Judd just asked me the exact same thing.”
Something like a tsunami of blood rushed through his ears. No. She was his. His sweet Mel. She was his to care for. His to love.
“Go on over there, caveman. You promised it wouldn’t be like this.”
Judd shoved two ice-cold bottles of water at his bare chest and rolled his eyes. But not before asking, real low, “We good?”
Will looked to Melanie where she still sat, quietly beaming on the couch, wrapped up in that ugly-ass blanket she’d made with random spools of yarn she had in her craft closet.
“Never better.”
And it was true. He’d never been better—he’d just choose to forget those heart-stopping,
Jan (ILT) J. C.; Gerardi Greenburg