The Bet (Winslow Brothers 1)

To shield her away from the strangers on the other side of the glass.

To not let anyone see her vulnerable, with her mouth around my cock. Or see how damn beautiful my girl looks when she’s about to come.

Fucking stop this, dude. Don’t let this go any further.

Sophie’s hands grip the edge of my boxers and pants, starting the process of pulling them down, and I don’t even have to think about my reaction. I just do. In an outright impulse, I quickly stop her momentum and grab her hands into mine.

Her face creases up in confusion when I don’t allow her to go any further. And her green eyes jerk up to my face.

“Jude?”

“I can’t.” I shake my head. “Not here, babe,” I tell her and gently lift her back to her feet. “We’re not going to finish this here.”

“You want to leave? Now?” All sorts of reactions coat her eyes, only half of which I can discern. But I’m not going to waste any time standing here, inside this fucking room with strangers’ eyes on her, and try to figure it all out.

“I’m so fucking proud of you, Sophie.” I hold my hands on either side of her face, brushing my lips against hers. “Of how you were just giving in to this moment and what you were feeling. But it’s time to go.”

After I softly kiss her once more, I take her hand into mine and lead her the fuck away from that bedroom. I don’t know what’s come over me or what I’m even doing, but I know I don’t want Sophie here for a minute more with other people’s eyes on her.

I want her all to myself.

Sophie

I was going to go through with it. At least, I think I was going to go through with it.

But in a blink of an eye, everything changed. One moment, I was gripping Jude’s pants and boxers, ready to pull them down, ready to make him and me feel good. And the next, he was telling me we needed to leave.

A hundred different feelings stirred in my belly. Confusion. Disappointment. Relief.

I still don’t know what to make of any of it, but with Jude’s lips persistent against mine, it’s currently the furthest thing I’m thinking about. Hell, I can hardly unlock my door as we stumble into my apartment, his arms around me and his kiss a fierce, determined force guiding and heightening my arousal.

Ever since he decided it was time to leave that club, leave that bedroom, we haven’t stopped kissing or touching each other. Not during the ride on the subway. Or during the three-block walk to my building.

And not now that we’re inside my place either.

I kick off my heels, and Jude lifts me up into his arms, wrapping my thighs around his waist as he strides toward my bedroom.

“Fuck. I need to be inside you,” he says. “Now.”

For once, I just tell it like it is. Say what I’m feeling out loud. “I need that too.”

He groans and presses his mouth to mine again, and our lips and tongues move together in a frenzied, rough tango.

When my back hits my mattress, only then does he disconnect the kiss to slide my dress up my waist and remove my panties. But then, he pauses and says, “Everything off, babe. I need to feel your body against mine.”

I don’t balk, I just do, and all our clothes become a distant memory on my bedroom floor.

Between one beat of my heart and the next, his body covers mine. Every inch of his skin and my skin are touching, connected, rubbing against each other. And I’m wild with the need to feel him, all of him. It’s an all-consuming craving that feels impossible to fully satisfy.

He pauses and leans off the mattress, grabbing for a condom in the back pocket of his discarded pants, but my mouth moves before I can even think.

“No. Don’t.”

He looks at me. “Don’t what?”

“I want to feel you inside me. Bare.”

“But—”

“I’m on birth control,” I add in a rush. “And I’m safe, clean, and—”

“I’m clean too,” he cuts me off. “But are you sure, Sophie?”

I nod, but then I quickly say, “Only if you want it, too.”

He doesn’t respond with words. Instead, he shows me his answer through actions.

With his body over mine, he guides himself inside me…completely bare. Just like I wanted. Just like I need. Inch by inch, I can feel him…really feel him, and it’s better than anything before.

He slowly stokes our intimate connection as his blue eyes stare deep into mine, and our mouths are so close, we’re sharing breaths and moans.

And it’s all so soft and sweet and perfect. It’s eye contact and touching and feeling and just…becoming one. This doesn’t feel like just sex anymore. It feels like something entirely different.