Raising the Stakes: Three of a Kind, Book 2 (3 page)

“Need
you
,” she muttered, “inside
me
.”

Whether it was the intensity of her feelings for him, or the aftereffect of her argument with Des, Megan was aroused, agitated and in desperate need of relief. Warm liquid gathered between her legs, readying her for the extraordinary ride she knew would follow. All she had to do was twist her hips this way…then that…

Alex clamped down on her hips, trapping her. “No!” His voice was unsteady.

“Damn it, Alex.” She sounded wanton and greedy. “Let me go!” Try as she might, she couldn’t move an inch. To make matters worse, Alex took a step back, pulling his cock away from her.

“Need a condom.” The tendons in his neck bulged. Perspiration dotted his forehead.

Her groan of frustration echoed through the room. “Hurry.” Damn it, she should have slipped one in her pocket when she’d gone to the bathroom earlier to get a Band-Aid. The boxes had been side by side.

He swiped a long finger over her slick folds, then dipped it in. Her inner walls grabbed at the digit, holding him there. God, even his finger brought her untold pleasure.

“Don’t move an inch.” He withdrew his hand and licked his finger. His groan vibrated through her ears.

Cold air washed over her as he staggered off, his finger still in his mouth.

Time stretched out endlessly. Hours passed. Days. Her body thrummed, taut with insatiable lust.

And then he was there, with her, his mouth devouring hers, his chest plastered against her breasts, his hands on her hips, encouraging the twist he’d earlier denied. This time, when she slid her eager pussy along the length of his condom-covered cock, he didn’t attempt to stop her. Nor did he impede her actions when she arched her back and wrapped a leg around his waist, encircling the tip of his penis with her wet, hungry lips, sucking him slowly inside.

With a low growl, he drove into her, burying himself in her depths.

Megan cried out, assailed by the exquisite satisfaction of his presence.

“Damn, baby,” Alex panted in her ear. “You feel good.”

He pulled out and thrust back in, sending her reeling through space.

In her wildest fantasies she’d only ever imagined one man could raise her to this level of ecstasy. Discovering Alex also had the capacity to propel her to this plane was both shocking and amazing.

In her fantasies it had always been Des.

“Kiss me, Alex.” Fantasy had no place here. This was real. Alex was real. In a way Des never would be. Alex was solid, naked male flesh, wrapped around her, burrowed inside her. He was here. Des was not. Alex was loving, dedicated and committed. Des was nothing but a dream she’d long stopped dreaming. A friend and no more.

Alex captured her mouth with his and kissed her voraciously.

She fed his hunger. Her lips clung to his as she opened up to his searching tongue. It swept inside, tasting, teasing, thrilling her. With each caress of his tongue in her mouth and every stroke of his cock in her pussy, she fell deeper under the spell that was Alex, lost herself further to the magic he wove around her.

How was such exquisite rapture possible with a man who wasn’t Des?

Without releasing his mouth, she lay back against the table, pulling him down with her. Cards fluttered to the floor as he shimmied them into a more comfortable position. After that, Megan registered nothing besides the storm building below her belly.

Alex plunged into her relentlessly, each stroke a delicious caress of torture.

This, now, was everything she needed. Alex was everything she needed.

She gripped his shoulders, digging her nails into the thick muscle layered beneath his skin, and held tight as he took her on the ride of her life.

It didn’t take long. Within minutes the storm became a tornado, a windstorm that ripped through her, blowing her control to pieces. She climaxed around his cock, clutching him rhythmically as he pounded into her. Thunder clapped in her ears, a roar of noise. It was her, screaming her release, screaming out her love for Alex.

“Megan—” Alex’s cry was cut short by his own orgasm. The impetus of his explosion and the beating of his cock as he emptied himself inside her agitated her sensitized channel, and she came again, her pussy a concentrated bundle of nerves and sensation.

Alex buried his head in her neck, gasping for air. He waited until the last flutters of her orgasm died away altogether before withdrawing from her. While she struggled to find her breath and her bearings, he lifted her off the table and carried her to his bed. Instead of tucking her tenderly beneath the covers as she’d expected, he ducked down, slipped his head between her legs and licked her pussy.

It took all of ten seconds under his clever tongue and Megan convulsed again.

Dear God, how had he known to do that?

She must have asked the question out loud because Alex answered her.

He chuckled as he disposed of the condom. “The last time I tried it, you had four orgasms in a row.”

“Ahh.” She nodded, breathless, quite unable to say any more.

Alex slipped into bed with her and pulled the doona over them both. With the last ounce of energy she possessed, she rolled over and snuggled into his chest.

He wrapped an arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “I love you, baby,” he whispered into her hair.

Megan’s heart filled to bursting. She smiled a tired, satisfied, happy smile and before she gave in to the tempting tug of sleep, she whispered back, “I love you too, Desmond.”

The light woke her. She yawned and stretched and instinctively reached for Alex. Her body was already primed for the long, sensual lovemaking she’d forfeited on the table. Her breasts were heavy with desire and her pussy wet with wanting.

She adored waking up beside him every morning. Loved the expectation of what she knew lay ahead. He’d roll her onto her back and slowly seduce her. Kiss every inch of her body until she writhed beneath him, begging for more.

Perhaps today she’d take on the role of aggressor. She’d explore his body, lick every sleek muscle in his chest and taste every beautiful inch of his male flesh.

Searching for him with her hand she found nothing but his pillow.

Lazily she opened an eye. His side of the bed was empty.

Megan frowned. She’d spent almost every night at Alex’s place since they’d met, and not once had she woken up alone. She didn’t like the solitude one bit.

“Alex?” Her voice rasped in her throat, not quite as awake as the rest of her body.

“Over here.”

She turned to look for him and blinked against the glare from the bedside lamp. So, not morning after all.

“Hey, you.” She smiled at the sight of him.

He sat naked in the blue armchair against the wall, the same chair he’d fucked her senseless on just a couple of nights ago. One foot rested on his thigh. His elbows were propped on the arms of the seat, and his fingers were steepled together.

“What’s the time?”

Alex’s gaze flickered to the clock on his side of the bed. “A little after two a.m.”

She scrunched her eyes, trying to clear away the sleepiness. “Whatcha doing all the way over there?”

“Thinking.”

“’Bout what?” Did he have to think at all? Couldn’t he just climb back into bed so they could start that slow, sexy dance of love?

“About my name.”

She yawned again, and this time when she stretched, she deliberately let the covers fall down to her waist. Perhaps an eyeful of her breasts, nipples hard from wanting him, would tempt him back under the doona with her. “What about your name?”

“It’s Alex.”

“Huh?”

“My name. It’s Alex.”

She laughed. “I know that, dummy. Now come here and kiss me and make me scream your name out loud.” She patted the empty space beside her.

“You called me Desmond.”

“What?”

“Last night. Just before you fell asleep.”

Megan sat up, the last wisps of sleep clearing from her head. “You’re kidding me.”

How the hell could she mistake the two of them? They were chalk and cheese. Alex all steady, focused determination and Des as informal and relaxed as they came. Different as two men could be, and she’d confused them?

He shook his head and Megan took a long look at his face. It was void of the smile he always reserved for her. In fact, it was void of any emotion whatsoever.

“What did I say?” She had no recollection of saying anything at all about Des. Alex had consumed every thought she’d had.

“You sure you want to know?”

Apprehension crept into her stomach. Could she really have done something so bloody stupid? “Yes.”
No.

He pursed his lips together before answering. “Your exact words were, ‘I love you too, Desmond’.”

Megan’s jaw dropped. She gaped at him while her heart dived into her belly, sending mad surges of blood to her head. At least she figured that’s what was going on inside her, because nothing else would explain the consuming dismay or the nausea that rose in her stomach. “Please tell me I didn’t.”

“Wish I could.” He shrugged.

Dear God, what had she done? “Alex.” She breathed out his name.
His
name. “I am so sorry.”

“Yep. Me too.”

She threw off the covers and sat up, flinging her legs over the side of the bed. “You have to know I didn’t mean anything by it. It was a mistake.” A terrible, horrible, rotten mistake.

“Ah.” He nodded. “You make that mistake often? Call all the men you love Desmond?”

A muscle ticked in her cheek. “In the last four years I’ve only loved one other man besides you.” She’d had a string of lovers, but no one special. Until Alex.

Alex
.

“So you do love me?” he asked.

“God, yes.” The truth of her words resounded through the room.

Alex’s lip twitched with a hint of a smile. “You sure about that?”

“Absolutely, positively, one hundred percent sure.” Would he ever believe her? God, she hoped so, although she wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t. How could she have said something so heartless? So bloody stupid?

It was a wonder Alex hadn’t tossed her out on her butt.

Alex’s mouth did not crease into the full-blown smile she’d hoped it might.

Her heart ached.

“I don’t get it.” He shook his head. “You say you love me, and I beli…I want to believe you…” His voice trailed off, leaving him deep in thought.

“But?” she prompted, afraid of his response. Why, oh why, did there have to be a but?

“But you called me Desmond.” There it was again, the hollowness in his voice.

Shit, she’d done this to him. She’d taken all the solid, unwavering light that was Alex, and stamped it out. She wanted to cry. Wanted to slap herself for being such a moron.

Maybe if she explained, he’d understand.

Somehow, she doubted it.

She had to try anyway. Had to make him see how much she loved him. “Des was on my mind last night. I must have been thinking about him subconsciously and slipped his name in when I should have said yours.” Lame, lame, lame.

“That’s nice.” Alex’s smile could have frozen the sun. “Do you always think about him when you’re fucking me?”

The blood drained from her face. She did, but how could she confess that without crushing everything she and Alex had built together? Without breaking his heart and her own?

“Last night wasn’t about sex,” she said in a voice not louder than a whisper. It was all she could mange.

Alex raised a derisive eyebrow.

She rushed in to correct herself. “With you and me it was.” Boy, was it ever. “Not with Des.”

“No, Des was obviously about love, not sex.”

Megan dragged a hand over her face, rubbing her eyes. Alex was so distant, so aloof. She didn’t blame him one bit. If their positions were reversed, she’d have marched straight out his front door and never looked back.

At least he’d hung around for an explanation.

“I fought with him last night. During your poker game.”

“Aw, what a shame. Lover’s quarrel, was it?”

“Alex!” God, could she ever make this right? “Des is my closest friend. He’s one of the most important people in my life. But that’s where our relationship ends. He is not, nor has he ever been, my lover.”

Which wasn’t to say she hadn’t spent four years wishing he was.

Therein lay the essential problem. No matter how much she loved Alex—and she did, she loved him immeasurably—she loved Des too. She had for years.

When she’d met Alex, she’d given up on her dreams of Des. If Alex had never entered the scene, she’d probably still be pining for the carefree, beautiful blond man who’d owned her heart for so long. But Alex
had
interfered, and now everything was different. Everything. So beautifully, wonderfully different.

She needed to explain all of this to him. She had to help him understand why she’d made that god-awful blunder.

Alex’s gaze was hard, unrelenting.

“Des and I have never fought. Last night was a first. It threw me.”

Her world had tipped off-kilter. Nothing had felt right for those few moments she and Des were at odds. She bit her lip. Whatever he was going through must be huge, or he’d never have been so disrespectful of her. So disinterested.

“Even when we met, he didn’t lose his cool with me, and he should have, considering I drove into the back of his brand-new car.”

Finally Alex spoke. “He must have been charmed.”

Alex obviously wasn’t.

Her heart constricted.

“Not charmed, no. But charming.” It had been her shock that had garnered Des’s empathy. She’d been both stunned and distressed by the crash. Distraught at the idea she might have hurt him and contrite that she’d crumpled his bumper. “Instead of blasting me to hell for my negligence, he laughed it off. He wasn’t pleased with me. But he never lost his temper once. Not even when my insurance gave him a hard time about paying out.”

Instead of getting irritated and blaming her for the accident, he’d worked with her to sort out the whole mess. The day he’d gotten his car back from the panel beaters, all expenses paid compliments of insurance, he’d taken her for dinner to celebrate. They’d been friends ever since.