Valentine's Date Read online

  He released her hands a little and shifted to his side, distancing that delicious heat instead of enveloping her in it more. “Zoe … Zee.”

  “Please.” The only thing she’d ever begged for was a shortcut out of a Cross-Fit class Aiden had signed her up for. She’d implore Roman in whatever groveling, desperate way he’d prefer if he’d give her a little more. Never before had her heart and body screamed for someone in tempo like this. Her mind had already forfeited to the knowledge Roman was—had always been—the man for her.

  “It’s Valentine’s, Roman.” She tried for humor. “You can’t deny me, us, love tonight.”

  He smirked at her, his hot breath whispering across her cheek. “It’s too soon, Zee. I don’t want to be a rebound.”

  Shitty sequence. Yeah, it had been only hours before that she’d been engaged to a Class A douche. But it had been years of secretly wanting this god of a man lying practically on top of her now.

  “No. It’s been too long,” she argued and grabbed the back of his head, twining his soft hair between her fingers. “All this time I wasted denying my attraction to you. The perfection we could have. The … love I tried to dismiss as mere friendship.”

  Masked in a scowl of anguish, he dropped his face closer to hers, his open mouth at the corner of her lips. She twisted her head to speak, a breath away from a kiss. “You wanted me all this time? Dreamed of me? I yearned for you. Now, why don’t we show each other how cheap our imaginations were and experience the real thing?”

  A growl was all he must have had the energy to speak, but his forceful kiss and tight clutch of his arm under her back showed his agreement. Delirious with his mouth assaulting hers, his teeth taking purchase on her lip, she followed the instinct to yank at the hem of his shirt. Together they pulled apart to whip off the garments, leaving her underdressed in her panties to his pants.

  Too many clothes.

  Before he could lower back down, she wedged her hands between them. She smoothed her hand under the band of his sweats, relishing the smooth, taut plane of his skin, and curled her fingers around the thickness of his cock.

  As she stroked him, reveling in the hard bulge she’d elicited, he fumbled to remove his pants. When he dove to kiss her again, still in his boxers, she dodged his face and tugged on his last piece of clothing.

  “I won’t last,” she warned him. How she hadn’t already come from his caresses and kisses… Taking time to smooth her hands on his ass and sides of his thighs, so as not to truly rush, she undressed him. He’d had to kneel on the couch, giving her room to get upright as well, and with his teeth locked on the curve between her neck and shoulder, he traced his fingertips along her. Starting with her face, he framed it and dragged his touch down her neck, around the sides of her breasts, over her stomach and finally hooked into the elastic of her panties. Stroking him, she closed her eyes and tucked her forehead to his chest as he yanked them off. Cool air chilled her as her wetness was exposed, but only for a moment before he hugged her and brought them down together on the couch, his fiery heat searing her bare flesh in contrast.

  “Now, Roman, now.”

  Now. Not later. Regrettably not before. But now. There would be no more delay to this sinfully gorgeous man being hers.

  “Protection?” he asked around a hurried kiss.

  “On the pill. And clean. Now, Roman. Please.” With her legs wrapped around him, she thrust up to him, rubbing her soaked folds against his steel.

  “I’m clean, too. I … never…” He retreated to line his dick up to her opening, torturing her with the tease of how thoroughly he’d fill her. “Realized you could be this impatient.”

  Patience? They’d already been denied too much time. Digging her heels into his ass, she pushed up to him, groaning as he sank into her, inch by wickedly slow inch.

  “Oh fuck,” he mumbled into her neck.

  “Oh, yes,” she whispered before she covered his lips with hers.

  She’d never been so stretched, so overwhelming full, so… Fucking perfect.

  One more pull of her heels on his ass had him slamming all the way in. He grunted as she gasped.

  Oh my God.

  “Zee—”

  “Yes, Roman.” She moaned as he withdrew, not missing the pained hesitation in his tone. Or maybe it was concern. “Yes.” Again, she pressed him back to her, pushing her hips up to meet him. “I am this impatient.”

  He thrust slowly but hard, pounding into her ruthlessly. Every forceful slam into her ground agonizing friction against her clit, driving her up to match his rhythm. Sweet tension coiled low in her belly and shot through every limb, promising an exquisite explosion. As he pummeled his cock again and into her needy core, all she strove to do was hang on. To his corded neck, his arms slippery with sweat and flexing so tight around her. To his love. Her arms grew slack as she gave in to simply riding the buildup of relentless tension. She refused to surrender the lock of her legs around him, unable to fathom any separation.

  “Roman,” she said on a gasp.

  Please. More. Almost … there.

  He reached out to twine their fingers together above her head. With their temples pressed together in a slick touch, she inhaled deep. The scent of him, so musky and masculine. The smell of them, of sex, hanging heavy in the room. Even with her eyes closed, she could remember the sight of his gloriously toned naked body, now wrapped around and thrusting inside her.

  Grant every sin… Maybe next time she’d ask for the dirty. With him taking over all her senses, she had no chance to think. His rough growl rumbled against her breasts as she arched up more, bringing them to an even tighter fit, reaching even deeper into her depths.

  He turned to press his lips to her skin, granting her a kiss so tender it broke her apart, both in her soul and within the throes of a shattering orgasm.

  “Fuck, Zee.” He breathed the words just before he roared.

  She groaned as he continued thrusting until he froze, jacking so deep into her that she jolted. Feeling the pulse of his dick so far inside, she relished the raw and brutal connection they forged anew that night. Grinning lazily, she stroked the sole of her foot along the back of his calf.

  What felt like hours later, she roused herself from the sleepy contentment and asked, “You’re not the type to, uh, kiss and tell, are you?”

  His eyes were lidded, and even though he’d raised one brow in question, his expression was drowsy. “Huh?”

  “You’re not going to … well, write about…” She nodded her head to the back of the couch. “This. Are you?”

  She mentally swooned as he slowly smiled. “Nah.”

  He pressed a kiss to her chin. “But I appreciate your assistance in … planning the future.”

  For his books. Or us?

  Chapter Five

  One year later

  “Roman, so help me God, if you don’t show me what’s in that box—”

  Oh, I’ll show you. He smirked as she shot out her hand around his side, escaping his hug and reaching for the latest delivery that sat just inside their front door.

  Their front door.

  The abrupt dissolution to her engagement with Aiden last February should have thrown Zoe for a loop. Their break-up made her move out, find a new place at a decent price, reestablish her independence in the city. She’d done all those things, but since the first date and night they shared together, she’d grown closer to Roman. There was never a need for her to apartment hunt because living together was a no-brainer.

  And once she opened that box behind him, he hoped the next step of them would seem just as much as an immediate solution as well.

  “Threats? On the most romantic night of the year?” he teased and spun her into a hug.

  Instead of pouting, she matched his grin and eyed him too sweetly to be sincere. The naughty smirks. Oh, those were even better.

  She cupped his jaw in both hands and gave him a kiss hot and torturous enough to get him too hard to be able to go out for dinner
. “You’re such a loving boyfriend, it’s Valentine’s every day in our home.”

  He murmured a sound of agreement. “Hmm. Sappy, much?” And then he caught the hand she’d lowered and snuck behind him, still trying to get that box of cardboard.

  Her growl only enforced his smile.

  “You should know better than to distract me,” he said. “So, again. Let’s grab some dinner and make it a real date, and then we’ll open that box. Together.”

  She twisted her lips into a crooked smile and rolled her eyes. “You’re such a stickler for tradition.” But she sighed and grabbed her coat as he blocked her access to the taped-up cardboard container.

  “It’s our anniversary.”

  She nodded.

  “And Valentine’s.”

  Another nod.

  It was also release day for the last book of his series. That same collection of fantasies that Zoe took over promoting, ensuring the line of fiction a success for both of them as a couple. The first run of paperbacks sat inside the box at their door, and with a heartfelt acknowledgment to the woman he loved, it was a package to open later. After a cheap but convenient meal of comfort food in the dinky diner downstairs. It was going to be their thing, they’d decided.

  “I promise. We’ll open it when we come back,” he said as they headed to the elevator. He didn’t hide his perusal of her, unlike his hesitation to let his gaze linger on her when he’d seen her on this same holiday last year. But now she was his—well, they were each other’s—and he took a slow and steady appreciative once over of her choice of another hot pink mini dress, and the riotous waves of the voluminous brown hair cascading down her back.

  So engrossed in her phone—probably checking last-minute release news for the book—she didn’t even give him her usual saucy wink she’d normally give him whenever she caught him undressing her with his eyes.

  Even as they made the quick one-minute walk to the diner she kept her attention to her phone. And as they sat at their booth.

  “Western omelet and Farmer’s sampler?” the waitress drawled, used to them coming often and ordering the same thing each time.

  Zoe gasped as soon as Roman nodded at the bulky woman. Alone with her again, he studied her.

  “Problem?” he asked. He had no clue what it could be. She was a perfect PA. Her attention to detail was frighteningly razor-sharp. There couldn’t be a snafu with the book’s release. Right? After all this time, he still suffered the occasional burst of anxiety that his dream career would plummet to a fast death. It was a complete opposite to how his confidence in his connection with the woman dining with him had only strengthened and grown.

  “Yes.” She brought her glassy gaze to his then and let her phone sit on the tabletop.

  “Well, what is it?” He leaned forward. Was there still a glitch with the copyright BS? Or the cover? Some shitstorm of PR? Or…

  She nodded, and a smile started to transform her solemn expression to one of radiant joy. “Yes, Roman. Yes.”

  He frowned, but the bright screen on her phone captured his attention for a split second. A sliver of time for him to realize she was answering him. Answering to the proposal he’d written in the book’s acknowledgment.

  “You weren’t supposed to see that yet!” His attempt at a scolding tone had no chance to stick with her bemused and glowing grin. “Dammit,” he said around a laugh. Still, he slid out of his booth and lowered to one knee. He removed the ring box from his pocket and repeated a line she’d just read.

  “For the woman who deserves the best of every Valentine’s Day.”

  The End

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