James: A College Girl Romance (26 page)

“Cass, I lied that night when I told you that you meant nothing to me because I wanted to protect you—and I was angry.”

“Angry? At what?” she cried.

“You, for
believing
that you didn’t mean anything to me.”

She laughed incredulously.

“What was I supposed to think?” she snapped.

“I knew if I admitted to feeling anything for you, you would become vulnerable—which would put me at a disadvantage when dealing with my father.”

“That’s great. I’m a liability.”

She rolled over again.

“What about you, Cass? Are you going to be honest with me?”

She paused and then shrugged with her back still to me.

“Sure.”

“Do you love me?”

She didn’t say anything for several seconds, and in those moments of silence, I realized that this woman had the power to break me.

“I loved you even when I knew I shouldn’t.”

I gently rolled her onto her back and reached up to touch her cheek.

“And I didn’t believe that I could love anyone—until you. I’ll spend the rest of my life proving exactly what you mean to me. And as soon as you’re not sore, I’m going to fuck you until you can’t think.”

***

I wound the silk scarf around my hands as I watched her sleeping and thought of all the times I had walked out the door without a backwards glance. Finally, three years later, I understood Ryan Bennett and why he hadn’t been able to walk away from his little college freshman. At the time, I hadn’t been able to conceptualize falling in love—because I hadn’t met Cassia Flynn.

Even now, I couldn’t believe the hold she had on me. She was like a drug I couldn’t get enough of. The longest days of my life were the two days I had gone without making love to her after the first time, which didn’t mean I had gone more than a few hours without making her come. Even after spending a solid week in bed—still the only thing I could think about was the next time I would be inside her.

I reached down and let my fingers skim across her back. Not Cassia Flynn. Cassia McDevitt. Yes, I was a fucking prick for assuming she would take my last name, but she was my wife, the woman I loved. What was her father to her? A con who had abandoned her. Granted, my own father was a horned, hoofed motherfucker of biblical proportion.

I was a prick, but at least I was better than my father. That was part of what I loved about Cass—she made me want to be better. I
wanted
her to see me as a man worthy of her love. With my free hand, I picked up my phone and sent a message to Irving, instructing him to have documents drawn up for a legal name change.

As the glow of another morning began to creep into the room, I moved Cass’s hair and kissed across her shoulders, then down her spine. When I got to her ass, I smiled and pulled her down to the center of the bed. She moaned sleepily. In the past week, I had found she could sleep through a Cat Five hurricane.

She also had the perfect fucking ass. I kissed the rounded flesh, sliding my fingers to the undersides of her ass cheeks. A tiny whimper escaped her throat as I continued, kissing down her thigh, my lips following the path of my fingers as bumps rose on her skin.

“Wake up, Cass.”

She stretched, her calf muscles shifting under my lips. As soon as I reached her ankles, I grasped both and spread them apart before kneeling between her legs and kissing my way up her other leg. When I bit down sharply on one delicious ass cheek, she squealed and twisted, laughing.

“You deserve to have that beautiful ass bitten for making me wait to fuck you again,” I said against her skin.

“You know, Mr. McDevitt,” she mumbled sleepily, “I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’ve got more stamina than the average guy. Don’t you ever get tired of—”

“No. When I’m not fucking you, I’m thinking about it.”

My hand caressed the curve of her ass, then between her legs until I slipped two fingers into her hot pussy and stroked against that spot until she moaned.

I pushed in and out of her languorously, kissing her skin as her hips began to rock. She gasped when I grabbed her hips and pulled her up until she was on her knees, her front half still resting on the bed.

“Put your arms behind your back.”

When she did as I told her, I reached down and tied one wrist and then the other so that her arms were pinned loosely behind her back. I pulled down a pillow and placed it under her head. Then I leaned forward and pressed against the silky skin of her ass cheeks. She shivered as I brought my hand up and positioned myself right at the entrance to her tight pussy.

“I’m going to fuck you now, and I want you to watch.”

When she moaned again, I grabbed her hair at the nape and pulled gently until she was facing the mirror on the wall.

“Open your eyes.”

Her eyes opened, and she stared at our reflection.

“I’ll be careful, but I’m going to be rougher this time. Do you want that?”

She bit her lip.

“Cass, tell me. I need to hear you say it.”

“Yes. Fuck, yes. Please, James.”

Such a dirty mouth. I loved it.

“I want you to see how beautiful you are when you come.”

I held her hair firmly, and a groan rose in my throat as she pushed her ass up into me. I slowly thrust into her, stretching the tight walls of her pussy. I rocked gently as my hand traveled across her hip and slid down her belly, between her thighs to circle her clit. I stroked faster, slowing each time she came close.

“James.”

Her eyes had closed, and her voice was desperate as my hand on her hair tightened. I drew all the way out of her, my muscles tense from the effort to restrain myself. I released her hair and held her hip as I positioned myself right at the entrance. She was so fucking wet.

“Look at me, Cass.”

Her breathing was ragged, and her eyes were clouded with lust as she opened them and stared into the mirror. My eyes locked with hers as I slammed into her, driving all the way in one forceful thrust. When she screamed my name, I paused.

“
Yes
,” she gasped.

I laughed, my hands tightening on her hips as I drew out almost all the way. Cass’s eyes were locked onto to the point where our bodies were joined. After untying her hands, I pulled her legs out until she was lying flat on her stomach. Then I lifted her hips until her ass was tilted at exactly the right angle.

I leaned over her, my legs between hers as I intertwined our fingers. How many times had I imagined this since I had first seen her? I positioned myself with my other hand and slid into her, bouncing off her lush ass cheeks as the breath whooshed from her lungs.

“Don’t stop,” she gasped.

I reached under her and rubbed her clit faster and faster until she was pushing against me each time I thrust. I stroked her roughly, feeding off her cries of pleasure.

“Goddamn, I love the sounds you make. Now, come for me, Cass.”

I let the pad of my finger pull up sharply on her clit and then stroke down, over and over as my movements quickened. My eyes held her as I felt her begin to tighten around me.

“You’re mine.”

As her ass bucked into me, I slammed into her over and over, compelled by her moans. I finally drove into her one last time as I felt my own release crash over me.

L
ying under the sunshade on the enormous deck overlooking the infinity pool and the Indian Ocean beyond, I wondered for the millionth time why I had waited so long to have sex. Then I remembered why.

James
.

If I’d had sex at any point before now, it wouldn’t have been with someone I loved, with someone I couldn’t imagine being without.

“What’s on your mind, lovely?” James asked. “You had that look like you were deep in thought.”

I turned and looked over the designer sunglasses I was wearing—one of the many items James had ordered and had delivered to the island. He had just come out of the workout room and was wearing nothing but a pair of basketball shorts hanging low on his hips. Shorts that drew attention to the muscles that formed the V pointing directly to what had become the center of my attention.

His chest was slick with sweat, emphasizing the contours of his chest, and I watched as he pushed his shorts down and walked over to the outdoor rain shower on the deck. I ran my tongue along my upper lip as he turned on the water.

“I was just thinking … about something you probably don’t want to hear about,” I said with a laugh.

He pushed his dark hair back back from his forehead—and
damn
. He looked like a tanner version of Dracula—with a killer body. The chiseled muscles in his ass were something to behold as he turned to face the water.

“Haven’t you learned better than that by now?” he asked over his shoulder.

I sat up from my reclined position.

“What? What haven’t I learned?”

“I always want to know what you’re thinking. Now, would you please enlighten me?”

“Fine. Just remember—you asked,” I warned. “I was thinking that if I had slept with anyone during high school or my first three years of undergrad or the past two years, I probably wouldn’t have known what great sex was.”

He shut off the water and turned around. I swallowed at the sight of him. He was instantly hard—and I still couldn’t believe
that
fit inside me.

“Haven’t I told you that a bikini is far too much clothing for a private island?” he said, interrupting my study of his anatomy.

I blinked innocently at him.

“But I’m not wearing a bikini, Mr. McDevitt.”

As I said this, I uncrossed my legs and set my feet wide on either side of the chaise longue, steadying myself on the sling-back heels I was wearing. James’s eyes immediately dropped to the crotchless panties. The “bikini” top I was wearing was actually a sheer, black-lace bra.

My eyes widened as he brought his hand up and gripped his length. Recovering from my shock, I smiled and slipped my hand beneath the lace panties. I was already insanely turned on, and when James began to prowl toward me, I held my breath.

The second he stopped in front of me, I scrambled to my knees and grabbed the thick length of him. I looked up at him as I kissed the tip. His eyes scorched me as I covered my teeth with my lips and pressed him into my mouth.

The feeling of the blunt head was fascinating. I ran my tongue along the rim and felt his groan vibrate through me. Thinking of the way my muscles clenched him, I sucked harder as I pushed my mouth down and used my hand to stroke him all the way to the root. I started moving faster.

While my hand slid up and down, following the slick path of my mouth, I reached up and cupped his balls. Suddenly James’s hand fisted the hair at my neck. I moved faster and faster until I tasted a hint of saltiness. When I sucked in my cheeks and ran my tongue along his length, I felt his muscles tense.

“Stop,” he rasped.

Surprised, I let him pop out of my mouth. Feeling like a scolded kid, I looked up at him, and he touched my swollen lower lip.

“I need to be inside you.”

His voice was ragged with need, and it turned me on even more. Before I could even try to grab him again, he lifted to me into his arms. In seconds, he had placed me on the bed. He grabbed my ankles and pulled me all the way to the edge. Then he lifted my leg and held it so that my high heel was facing the ceiling. With his other hand, he slipped his fingers along the slit in my panties, his thumb coming up to circle my clit until I moaned.

Shuddering when his touch disappeared, I watched as he lifted my other leg to his chest. He spread the open seam of the panties, his eyes darkening to black as he pressed himself right where I was aching. Then he took both my ankles in his hands and lifted them toward the ceiling as he thrust into me. When he began rocking me from side to side, my mouth opened as the breath rushed out of me. Oh
fuck
.

“You like that?” he rasped in an amused tone.

He didn’t give me a chance to catch my breath. He reached between my legs and teased my clit as he continued knocking gently against the spot I hadn’t realized existed before I met him. Suddenly I was gasping for air with every movement of him inside me. When his thrusts became just a little bit rougher, I felt my muscles begin to contract.

“Not yet, Cass. Wait for me, lovely,” he demanded. I breathed shallowly as his thrusts slowed and his eyes locked with mine. “You feel so fucking good. I never thought it could be this good. I never thought I could feel this much for another person.”

James hooked my ankles on his shoulders and gripped the backs of my thighs before slamming his hips against my ass, jarring me into a climax so intense I couldn’t breathe, think, or make a sound as I tightened around him.

“Fuck,
yes
,” he growled. “You are so goddamn sexy.”

His thrusts became shallow and quick before he slammed into me, causing the pleasure to explode. My bones were already liquefied as I felt him thrust one last time, all the way to the hilt. He turned to kiss my ankle as he slowly withdrew. By the time he lowered my legs from his chest, I felt drunk.

“Oh my god,” I moaned as he dragged me up the bed and then collapsed next to me.

He looked over at me.

“Good?” he asked.

I lifted my arm, which was as limp as cooked spaghetti, and gave him a thumbs-up.

“Mission accomplished. That time you
definitely
fucked me until I couldn’t think.”

“I wasn’t too rough, was I?”

“Hell no. That was amazing. But I do feel like I’ve been through McDevitt’s sex boot camp.” I paused. “Huh. Does that make you a drill sergeant? Should I call you sir?”

He laughed and ran a hand along my side.

“Lunch?”

“Breakfast, sex? Lunch, sex? Dinner, sex? Dessert, sex?” I asked.

“I think that’s a reasonable schedule for boot camp, don’t you?” he responded cheerfully.

“Well, eventually I am going to have to use my brain again.”

I looked down at what I was wearing—crotchless panties, a bra, and fuck-me heels.

“I look like belong at
Fantasy Land
.”

James’s jaw tightened as he reached out and let his fingers travel across my cheek.

“I don’t want to think of anyone else seeing you this way …”

“You know, plenty of people saw me in a naughty-schoolgirl outfit, right?” I laughed.

James shook his head and pulled his hand away before turning to stare up at the ceiling.

“I knew that first night in San Francisco that you were going to be my destruction.”

I propped myself up on my elbow and frowned at him.

“That’s a little dramatic, isn’t it?”

He shook his head.

“No. I changed after I met you.”

“No one changes that fast—that only happens in the movies. One music montage, and done.”

But I knew I was wrong, because my own life had changed from the moment I had looked up and seen James in the club that first night.

“Change isn’t always slow. Sometimes it’s like”—he snapped his fingers—“that. Something, or someone, shifts your perspective on the world.”

“
I
changed your perspective on the world?”

“Maybe I was ready for a change, and meeting you was the catalyst.”

When his phone went off outside, he got up and disappeared, completely naked. The perks of a private island. He came back a minute later, staring down at his phone and laughing.

“Hold out your hand, lovely.”

When I held up my right hand, palm up, he looked up from the phone and grinned at me.

“Other hand.”

“Oh.”

I held out my left hand, and he took a picture.

“You didn’t take a picture of me in a sheer bra and crotchless panties, did you?”

He laughed and dropped down next to me.

“Just your ring. I’m definitely not sending Bennett a picture of you in
that
outfit.”

“Who?”

“You know that wine you’re such a fan of?”

“Bennett Cellars? Yeah, that stuff was phenomenal.”

“Ryan Bennett, who now runs the operation, was my roommate freshman year of undergrad. Good guy. Bit of a self-righteous prick.”

I smiled.

“Oh, yeah. He’s the one who called you a lothario, right?”

“Yes, he is. He’s also the one who hooked up with an eighteen-year-old freshman in one of his classes while he was finishing his doctorate at your university.”

I gasped dramatically.

“Scandalous.”

“Particularly for Bennett. When I first met Alex Reed, I asked her how she and Bennett had met, and she told me she had been stripping at a club off the freeway to pay for tuition. She was joking, but when I met you …”

I blinked.

“You thought I was the punch line. Wow.”

“Cass, you are not a punch line. You’re the most important person in my life.”

“But a few weeks ago, I was just some cocktail waitress in a strip club you frequented. How do you know you won’t change your mind? About me.”

“Because I’ve never felt anything close to what I feel for you, and I’m nothing if not a stubborn bastard.”

“But what about the strip clubs, the one-night stands, your no-commitment philosophy? You’re not going to miss that in two weeks? Two months? Two years?”

“Number one, I love you. Number two, there’s no novelty in any of those things. I’m not some jackass who thinks he missed out. I know I didn’t miss out—and after a while, the party gets old. What about you? Don’t you think you’ll wonder if you’re missing out?”

“Well, let’s see. I’m almost twenty-four, not eighteen. I loved getting groped by frat guys at parties. I’m really going to miss getting dry-humped by drunken guys in clubs. And I really want to go out with a bunch of guys I’m not interested in to prove that I didn’t miss out on something.”

His knuckles cracked.

“Cass, stop. Before you make me unnecessarily homicidal toward nonexistent men who may or may not have touched you.”

“Fine. You just have to promise me that if you wake up someday and want to sleep with other people, just divorce me—don’t cheat on me. Wait—holy shit! I didn’t sign a prenuptial contract!”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Are you crazy? Oh my god! How much are you worth? Oh my god—how many people have you slept with?”

James laughed.

“Are you done?”

I shook my head.

“Probably not. There’s way too much we haven’t talked about. Kids. Politics. Social justice. Where to live.” I stopped and felt the blood draining from my face. “Hold on. How many people
have
you slept with?”

“I haven’t counted. I wasn’t trying to reach a legendary number. But
that’s
what you wanted to know instead of how much money I’m worth?”

I shrugged.

“You own an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, which means you’re richer than I can conceive of, which is weird enough.”

“Weird why?” James asked.

“We just come from different planets. You attended Ivy League schools; I barely got through three years at public school before dropping out. You started a tech conglomerate; I’m a college dropout. You see the disparity?”

“I see
you
. I love
you
.
You
are what matters to me.”

When I started sobbing, James tucked me against his chest and laid back before kissing the top of my head.

“Does this mean we’re skipping lunch?” I sniffled.

“Absolutely not. What would you like?”

Sitting on the beach, I dug my toes into the warm sand while James reapplied my sunscreen.

“I can’t believe you had never even been to your own island before this trip,” I mused.

“I’ve been busy these past two years, and maybe I was waiting for the right person to share it with,” he said before I twisted around and kissed him. “Would you mind going back to the states for a quick trip if I said we could come back here for an entire month?”