Before I’d kissed Belle.
Before I’d felt what it was like to have her body pressed against mine.
None of that mattered, because when it came down to it, I knew we couldn’t be together, not how we were when we were alone and in the safety of her apartment, but I promised myself I’d cherish every moment until that time came.
* * *
BELLE
I wasn’t sure how long I’d been lying in my bed and staring at the window, watching as the blind waved back and forth from the morning breeze. For the first time since I walked into that club a few months ago, my mind was empty, not a thought in sight. And it was bliss.
Until a couple of gentle knocks echoed through my room.
My gaze moved from the window to the door, and I looked at it for a couple of seconds, debating whether to get up or pretend to be asleep. I’d been at the lake house for four days now, which meant it was only three days until we went back to my apartment, and I hated to admit that I was dreading it.
I didn’t want to go back, but I knew I had to. I refused to be weak, especially when I was surrounded by people who were constantly strong. I had to live up to their expectations, even if they were self-imposed.
“Belle?” a deep voice whispered through my door, a voice I craved. “I’m coming in.”
I sprung up into a sitting position, and my eyes widened as the door opened, and Ford slipped into my room. His gaze met mine, and he didn’t look away as he closed the door slowly behind him. His feet were bare, and a pair of shorts hung low on his hips. That was all he wore. He was trying to torture me, but I didn’t mind it one bit.
“Ford?” I murmured, and my hands started to shake as he stepped closer to my bed. His abs tensed with each step he took, and my fingers twitched with the need to touch them—to touch him. I expected him to at least look around my room, but then, he already knew what it looked like. Not much had changed in the last ten years. It was still painted a dark purple, the closest to black Mom would let me have.
“Your dad and the guys are all out on the lake fishing,” he told me, taking another step and coming to the end of my bed. He leaned down, his hands pushing into the comforter and gripping it. “Your mom and Aria have gone to the store for supplies.” He ripped the comforter off of me and threw it down to the floor. “Which means…”
“We’re alone?” I asked, my voice a breathy whisper. The breeze from the window drifted across my exposed legs, causing goose bumps to rise.
“Yeah, Baby Belle. We’re alone.” Ford placed both of his knees on the bed and crawled over me, his body hovering, and it was driving me insane. I needed to feel his skin against mine, and I needed it right then and there. Four days was too long to go without him. I’d never been so desperate to touch another person in my life, and I knew deep down that it wasn’t normal to feel the way I was. It meant there was more there, but there had always been more with Ford. He made me forget who I was, and right then, it was exactly what I needed.
I placed my hand on his chest and let my fingers drift over his pecs and down to his abs. His smooth tan skin felt like velvet against my fingertips. “I missed you,” I murmured, staring into his eyes so he could see how true the statement was. I had missed him. He may have been here with me, but he wasn’t next to me when I wanted him most—in my bed.
“Fuck, sweetheart,” he groaned, jerking as my fingers flowed over his abs and played with the waist of his shorts. “I missed you too.”
His face was centimeters from mine, so little distance, and yet I couldn’t bring myself to close it. The torment of waiting was one I enjoyed, and from the way Ford’s hazel eyes darkened and swirled, I had a feeling he felt the same. His hand grasped my waist while his other one held the side of my face, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could wait for our lips to connect.
“I’m not sure I can go slow,” he warned me, and I nodded because I didn’t need slow. Not right then. I needed hard and fast. I needed Ford. I needed us.
“Fuck me, Ford.” I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and my legs around his waist, and pulled him down onto me. “Fuck me like you’ve never fucked me before.”
He growled, the only answer to my demand, and then his lips slammed down onto mine. He pushed his tongue into my mouth, and at the same time, he ripped my panties, the material falling off me in two pieces from the force.
His fingers trailed over my clit, rubbing against the spot I’d needed him. A gasp left me, and I tried to close my leg
s, but it was impossible with him between them. The pace he was going at was too much, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to last long. Not when I’d been watching his every move the last few days, imagining what it would be like when he finally touched me again.
It was all too much.
His fingers on my clit, his mouth moving down to my nipples and sucking on them. And then there was the fact I was in my bedroom at my parents’ lake house. We were taking a risk doing this here, and that made me pant even more. In the back of my mind, I knew Ford wouldn’t have come in here if he thought we’d get caught, but there was still the possibility, which was making me more eager for him to put his cock inside me.
“Yes,” I groaned out. “Yes, Ford, right there.”
I widened my legs, needing more of him, and he took the opportunity to yank his shorts down and thrust inside me with one fluid movement. He didn’t give me any warning, and I bowed my back at the sensation.
“Look at me, Belle,” he demanded, and I flung my eyes open, capturing his gaze in an instant. He thrust a second time, causing me to move up the bed, but his hand didn’t stop rubbing against my clit, pushing me closer and closer to the place I wanted to be most.
“It’s too much,” I gasped out, feeling sensations I’d never experienced before. Was this what it was like all the time? Or was it just because it was Ford?
“Feel it,” he ground out, slamming inside me again. “Feel all of me.”