Seducing the Bride

I drag in a deep breath as I follow her up the stairs, grateful that she’s put on shorts. They’re so tiny that the curve of her ass hangs out under the hem, but they cover more than her bikini bottoms. I’ve got to be grateful for small favors.

Inside her room, I spot two big suitcases near the door and reach for them. “Both of these?”

“Yeah. Wait.” She wraps a tentative hand around my arm, looking downright nervous.

“You okay?”

She bites her lip again, seemingly hesitant and agitated. “You like me, right?”

As a person? Or as a woman?

“Sure. We’re been friends for years,” I say carefully.

She sighs. “What if I don’t want to be friends?”

My heart stutters. “I don’t understand.”

But I think I do.

“I’m not making sense.” She raises her chin and pins me with an unblinking stare. “Hayden, I’m in love with you. I always have been. I want you to spend tonight with me. Please.”

Perrie Atkins just propositioned me. Holy shit.

I swallow, struck mute. My mouth hangs open. My heart revs. My cock… Well, it’s predictable.

Before I can say a word, she launches herself against me, winds her arms around my neck, and slants her lips over mine.

All thoughts freeze under an onslaught of oh, hell yes.

Her kiss is wholly unpracticed, but I’m aroused as fuck because I’m finally feeling Perrie.

My brain screams that I need to push her away…but the rest of me has a totally different scheme. It’s irresponsible and will lead me straight to Hades, but I’m voting in favor of sin.

With a groan, I grip her ass in my hands, then turn to push her against the wall, plunging into her mouth and devouring her like I’m starved because I am.

Her little whimper as she wraps her legs around my hips goes straight to my dick. She clings to me with her whole body, parting her lips wider to accommodate the insistent stab of my tongue and spilling more of her candy flavor for me to consume.

As I recklessly inhale her, I shove aside every thought except this moment.

A million images of us together in her bed—me rooting through her virgin flesh and rutting on top of her without clothing or anything as practical as a condom between us—bombards my brain. My patience goes up in flames. After one kiss, I’m more aroused than I’ve ever been in my life.

Fuck, I have to stop. Now. If I don’t, I won’t be able to. Then every filthy fantasy swimming in my brain will become a reality.

And all of Perrie’s grand plans for the future will come to a halt. Her life will be over.

I can’t be responsible for that.

Heaving in a ragged breath, I shove her away from me. “No.”

Still panting, she sends me a pleading stare. Tears swim in her big green eyes. Her lips look so goddamn red and lush from our rough kiss, it’s all I can do not to grab her again.

“Hayden…”

Somewhere, I find the will to put more distance between us. “I said no, Perrie. I won’t spend the night with you. I don’t see you like that.”

“Bullshit.” She looks down at the hard length beneath the fly of my shorts. “You’re lying.”

No matter what my mouth says, my dick gives me away.

“I want a woman. You’re just a kid.”

“I’m not adult enough because I’m a virgin?” She looks hurt.

“Sexual experience has nothing to do with it.” The last thing I want to do is encourage her to find the first hard prick to take her innocence. “But you’ve never paid a bill or spent a night under a roof you’ve had to earn. Hell, last month, you were still venting about high school.” Since she’s been running the household in her mom’s absence for nearly eight years, accusing her of immaturity is a low blow. But I can’t feel bad about saying whatever will put a stop to her ruination. “We’re at different places in our lives, Perrie.”

“You love me,” she hurls. “I know it. The way you kissed me proved it.”

Shit. “The way I kissed you proves I’m a guy who likes pussy. And if you weren’t Dan’s daughter, I’d probably take it. But you are, and I don’t want to fuck up a friendship. So I’m going now.”

I turn to leave her room before I do whatever it takes to wipe that crestfallen look off her face and replace it with a sated smile.

“Wait!” she calls out.

The desperate catch in her voice nearly does me in.

“Take this.” She marches in front of me and slaps her last game token in my hand, then sends me a determined stare. “Save it. Every day I’m gone, I want you to look at it, feel it, and remember me. Know that I’ll be saving myself for you. One day, Hayden Hughes, you’ll want me. Not just my pussy. Me. When that day comes, return the token to me. Anytime, anywhere, I’ll be yours for the night. Then I’ll prove I’m all the woman you need.”