Lost Perfect Kiss: A Crown Creek Novel Read online

  I shifted and leaned back onto the bed, carefully maneuvering until I was flat on my back. She watched me and when I finally laid down she let out a breath and I knew she’d been worried I was hurting. But I wasn’t feeling anything except need for her. “Ready to help me?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Great.” I beckoned her over. “Come sit on my face.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Everly

  He was looking at me. And more than that, he was seeing me.

  I was surprised at the eagerness with which I straddled him. My shyness fought against the overwhelming desire to be noticed and adored, and the desire won out fully when he looked up at me from between my legs.

  I knelt over him, exposing my most vulnerable parts to him, and he was watching like I was some kind of sacred object. His eyes flicked to that space between my legs and then back up to my eyes as I looked down at him. “Gotta say,” he murmured. “The view from down here is incredible.”

  Heat flowed through my veins as his fingers brushed up the inside of my thighs. “Spread your legs for me, baby. I need you down here.” He touched his tongue and gave a dirty flick that made my heart skip in disbelief that this was happening to me. “Right down on my mouth, please. Yes, you’re really helping me out here, thank you.” He moaned almost as loud as I did when his tongue first touched my overheated skin. I leaned forward and braced my hands on the wall, looking down in utter disbelief at Gabe King’s face between my legs. For a moment I could only assume this was some kind of fever dream brought on from stress.

  But then his tongue started moving and that worry fled my brain. Along with any thoughts about professionalism, the fact that his parents were downstairs, the fact that I wasn’t acting like myself at all. Was I really the kind of girl who could strip naked and straddle a former rockstar’s face? Was I really a girl who a former rockstar would even notice?

  Up until an hour ago I would have answered no to both of those questions and yet here I was, naked and grinding myself against Gabe King’s tongue as he made appreciative and encouraging noises. The hum of his lips against my clit went straight to my core, making my thighs tense and quake. I braced my hands against the wall, scraping my nails against the plaster as he swirled his tongue around the entrance of my pussy before lapping it in a series of small, perfect thrusts. My whole body was taut and ready, poised at the edge so that when he slid his tongue back up to my clit and flattened it so that the whole of my sex was covered in the warm pressure, it was like a bomb went off under my skin.

  “Gabe, shit, Gabe...” My powers of speech dissolved completely, leaving me with nothing but mindless babble to express what I was thinking. Fuck, I wasn’t thinking, I was only feeling the explosion roil outward to my limbs. “Gabe, fuck, Gabe...” Even as the orgasm pulsed through me, I was already greedy for more. More than his tongue could give. I wanted to hear his moans unmuffled. I wanted to watch his face as he sank inside of me and see if he watched with that same rapt attention.

  I wanted to fuck Gabe King more than I’d ever wanted anything in my life.

  “Fuck,” he groaned, still swirling that greedy tongue around. “You do taste as good as you look. I can fucking feel you coming on my tongue. You’re phenomenal, baby, you’re fucking spectacular.” He reached up, bracing my still-quivering thighs, and pressed me down to sit on his chest as the aftershocks of the orgasm he’d just given me ricocheted through my body. “I want to eat you all night long, baby, so take a break.”

  “No,” I moaned.

  “No?”

  I reached down, trailing my fingers down his chest and stomach. I could feel his muscles quivering with the strain of pent-up desire and when my fingers closed around his length, he let out a moan that sounded more like an explosion. “No,” I said as I began to move my hand in time with his arching hips. “I want to fuck you, Gabe.”

  “Christ, you really are phenomenal,” he said as he watched me stroke the outside of his jeans with a reverent gaze.

  I wasn’t experienced at all. My one sexual experience could hardly be counted as experience since it was accomplished in the teacher’s bathroom of Crown Creek High. I never knew if Hal Finley actually liked me or if he was looking for an easy way to get his rocks off, but I had been thrilled enough by his attention that I readily agreed to follow him into the restroom and take off my pants. It had been quick and painful and when it was over, he’d barely looked at me.

  He never looked at me again.

  But Gabe was looking at me, and that knowledge made me bold. With trembling fingers, I unzipped his jeans and helped him shimmy out of them, taking care not to knock his swollen ankles. I paused before I pulled down his boxers and he lifted his head to catch my eye. “You okay?” he asked in a voice suffused with such care and longing that it undid me.

  “I’m good,” I said, and I meant it more than he could ever know.

  When I pulled his boxers down, I had to stop and remind myself that this was not the first time I was seeing his cock. It was just the first time I was seeing it hard and perfect like that. Standing at a ninety-degree angle from his body, it looked so silken and smooth that I was taken with a desire to lick it. I leaned down and kissed the head, surprised at how it felt against my lips. Gabe breathed out a ragged, “Ah!” which only made me want to make him make that sound again. I opened my mouth and closed my lips around him, and he let another “Ah!” escape. Without meaning to I made the same noise in my throat.

  I’d always thought of giving a guy head as something passive and subservient, but kneeling over Gabe and drawing those guttural moans from him every time I slid my lips down his shaft was the most powerful I had ever felt. I got greedy, moving faster, little slurping sounds escaping my mouth in my haste to take all of him in.

  I felt his big hands on my head. “Baby, you keep doing that, I’m gonna come in your mouth, and I don’t want to be done just yet,” he groaned, closing my hair in his fists.

  I sat up and he swore. “Fuck, look at you with those swollen lips. Come here and kiss me.”

  I crawled up to him and he sealed his mouth to mine in the most bruising kiss of my life. When I blinked back, breathless and gasping, his eyes were darker than I’d ever seen them. “There’s a condom in my nightstand right there,” he rumbled.

  My fingers trembled in excitement, making the process of extracting the foil packet from the package feel like it took eons. “Can you?” I asked him shyly. “I’ve never...”

  With a warm smile, he deftly plucked the wrapper from my hand and I watched, fascinated, as he gripped himself and quickly unrolled the condom onto his cock. “You’re gonna ride me, right, baby? Because I’m getting really addicted to looking up at those tits.”

  I bit my lip. This was an addiction I could definitely support. With his eyes on me, I felt like the most beautiful thing in the world as I straddled him once again and guided his cock inside of me. “Slowly, baby,” he murmured as I hissed at that first burning stretch. “I’m not in any rush. You make it good for you.”

  I nodded and slid myself down in tiny increments, feeling the way he filled and stretched me. He hissed again as I began to move, taking him in with short shallow strokes. “Oh my god,” I breathed as I looked down to where his cock was sliding inside of me.

  “Look at us, baby. We fit so good together,” he said, reaching out and cupping his hands around my ass cheeks, guiding me deeper. When he sank in all the way to the hilt, we both gasped. I could feel him throbbing inside of me, growing even harder.

  “Shit,” I whispered, leaning forward. His pubic bone ground into my clit as I started to ride him, gasping. He growled and put his hand on my back, pressing me down so that all the movement was concentrated right in that spot as he somehow thrust upward. I was on top of him, but he was in control, taking me closer and closer to the edge every time we came together.

  “Yes, like that, Jesus, get there, Everly, because you feel too fucking good. Right like that, I
can feel you. You’re so tight, fuck, I want you to come on my cock, you hear me?” There was no teasing in his voice now. He was all authority and animal desire. “I’m gonna fuck you like this until you come for me.”

  That exquisite friction was driving me out of my mind. I planted my hands on his chest, and I could feel his heart racing under my fingers in a pace that matched my own. “Gabe!” I cried, half begging, half triumphant, and the wave of pressure that had been building broke across me.

  I exploded. I fucking lost my mind.

  “Gabe!”

  I rode him like a wild woman, chasing that incredible sensation as it went on and on, shocking me with its intensity even as I wanted it to go on forever. When I thought it was starting to ebb, I felt his cock twitch inside of me and Gabe roared, sinking his fingers into my hips and pulling me down so hard our bodies slapped together, skin on skin, the drum solo in the concert we were putting on for each other.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Gabe

  I pushed myself up to catch her as she fell against me. Our breathing slowed and synced up. Holding her like this, feeling the sweat on her skin and smelling our mingled scents, was important enough to me that I was able to ignore the sharp pain in my ribs from supporting myself like this.

  I kissed her shoulder. Running my hand up the curve of her spine, it was a wonder to me that I had ever not known her. Once I had her in my arms it was as clear as muscle memory that she was the girl I’d been dreaming about all this time. “Baby,” I breathed.

  She knew at once what I was about to say. “Lie down,” she ordered.

  I grinned. “Yes, nurse.”

  She nodded and slid off the bed and yanked on her clothes. “Be right back.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” I reminded her.

  She disappeared from the room and returned with a wet cloth. “Hygiene is an important part of the healing process,” she intoned with a cute little smirk on her face.

  I rolled my eyes. “It’s a good thing you’re my nurse, because I wouldn’t let anyone else in the world do this.”

  Her eyes widened as she watched me clean myself. “It is a good thing I’m your nurse,” she agreed, moving to kiss me. Then she stopped with a stricken look on her face. “Oh my god.” She buried her face in her hands.

  I shook my head and gently tugged them away. “None of that.” I leaned up, searching her face. “You’re freaking out. Why are you freaking out?”

  “I’m going to lose this job,” she said.

  I wanted to laugh and tell her it didn’t matter, but I knew how much it mattered to her. How much she needed the money. I stifled my laugh and was about to protest that I’d make sure she was taken care of when something flickered across her face. Her chin jutted stubbornly. “Right. I’m done with it.”

  “What?”

  “This job. I slept with my patient. That’s completely unprofessional. I’m definitely fired.” She looked almost relieved.

  “Does that mean you’re not coming over anymore?” I slid my hands between her legs.

  She arched into it. “Don’t know why I would,” she said, but there was something I loved about the way her lip twitched in glee.

  “Hmm, you don’t know why?” I flicked my tongue out. “Maybe I can persuade you to stop by once in a while?”

  “Not as your nurse,” she said firmly. “I officially quit.”

  I grinned. I knew how important this was to her, that she stay professional on the job. So of course it would make sense that she wouldn’t want the job any more. “Yup, you don’t even have to give your two-weeks notice. But maybe you could come over as my girl?”

  Her face lit up like she had the sun shining from inside of her. “As your girl?” Her grin grew crafty. “Yeah. I suppose I could do that.” She leaned over and kissed me. “I should go now, though,” she whispered.

  It broke my heart that she couldn’t stay. I wanted to lie next to her and listen to her breathing deepen as she fell asleep and press the curve of her body against mine. “This fucking hospital bed,” I growled. “It’s too tiny.”

  She pulled her shirt over her head and leaned over to kiss my nose. “But I told you I was coming back.”

  I nodded firmly. “As my girl.”

  “As your girl.” She kissed my lips.

  “Good night, Everly.”

  “Sleep well, Gabe.”

  “I will. You wore me right out.”

  She blushed and ducked her head as she scurried out the door, but I took a perverse sense of pride in seeing she was walking a little bowlegged.

  I was still feeling blissed out and sated when I mindlessly reached out to my phone to check what time it was.

  “Fuck,” I whispered when I saw the missed call notification. I recognized the area code. I knew who it had to be, but part of me didn’t dare hope.

  I pressed the play button and my producer’s voice boomed out of the speaker. “Gabriel! Listen, sorry to be calling so late. I know you’re probably asleep or something, but I wanted to get ahold of you with the good news as soon as I got it. We’re renewed!” I heard him slap his palm on his thigh and could picture him sitting there in the corner office late at night, his feet up on his huge oaken desk.

  Kit Lomber was the producer of King of Pain. Me taking giant risks on camera had pretty much paid for that ritzy corner office. “Call me as soon as you get this and we can talk scheduling,” he went on. “I know we need to work around your recovery and all, but I know you’re gonna be back on your feet and jumping off buildings again real soon, buddy.” He paused like he was about to hang up, then repeated his plea with a note of desperation in his voice. “Call me.”

  I looked at the screen, my finger already hovering over the call back button. Getting back to the show had been all I wanted these past few frustrating months. Getting paid to do stupid, thrilling shit? Hell, I’d fucking do it for free. I couldn’t wait to get back.

  Except.

  I glanced at the door. Everly’s scent still hung in the room, clinging to my skin and filling my lungs. She’d said she’d come over as my girl, but would she still want to be my girl if I told her I was leaving? Was I leaving?

  If you’d asked me last week if I planned on staying in Crown Creek once I healed, I would have laughed at you. But now?

  Now I wasn’t laughing at all.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Everly

  It was one of those days where everything lines up.

  I woke before my alarm with a ton of energy. I weighed myself and noted with glee that I had lost two pounds—probably from the workout Gabe gave me last night, I remembered with a pleasing warmth in my belly. I brewed my coffee perfectly and the newly restored Grim started right up, as obedient as a well-trained dog. I hit all the lights on my way in to class and I didn’t even mind that all of my classmates were still discussing when the boards results would be posted. I was going to take them the next time they were given. No big deal.

  Who was this new girl that everything came easily to?

  Me, I thought giddily as I snagged a parking spot right next to the door.

  I was so used to everything going wrong that I’d padded a lot of time into my morning out of habit. Since everything had gone right, I was the first one to arrive for class, a full half hour before it was supposed to start.

  I stepped in and let the door close behind me, but a gust of wind from someone entering down the hall caught it and sent it slamming shut with a bang that made me jump.

  A muffled cry came from behind the podium. Startled, I looked down the rows to see a face poking out, crumpled with a yawn. Her tight French braid was fuzzy and falling down with sleep.

  “Rachel?” I called.

  She leaped to her feet. “Please don’t tell,” she said, yanking at her rumpled clothes and re-tucking her shirt in.

  I stared at her, horrified. “Is this where you sleep?” I asked her.

  She pressed her lips together, and I cursed myself for
even asking. “Is class starting?” she asked, and I realized it was more words than she’d said to me thus far.

  I shook my head. “No, I’m early.”

  She looked relieved and stifled another yawn.

  I felt my heart tweak in sympathy. I didn’t know the girl, but I had the distinct feeling that she and I had a lot in common. We both moved around the edges of things, wary and waiting for someone to notice us.

  Gabe had noticed me. I’d noticed her.

  This was the morning where everything was going right. That was the only reason I had the courage to suggest what I said next. “In fact,” I said, setting down my books. “I was just heading over to the student union to grab some coffee.” I hadn’t planned on this at all, but she didn’t need to know that. “You want to come?” I asked hesitantly. “You look like you could use some help waking up.”

  She looked at me warily. She had soft brown eyes that held some kind of childish innocence. Even braided, her dark blonde hair fell to the small of her back. She seemed far too young and naive to be an adult in the working world, yet that’s exactly what she was. “I have to start working in half an hour,” she said in a warning tone that sounded like it was a reminder to herself.

  I grinned. “That’s more than enough time.”

  A flickering fear danced across her face, but she quickly composed herself. Nodding, she followed me as we hurried through the lashing rain across the concrete plaza to the student union building. “Their coffee isn’t the best here,” I yelled over the wind, needing to fill the silence somehow. “But it’s hot and warms my hands up, and at least makes me feel like I should be awake. Maybe it’s a psychosomatic response, you know?”

  I glanced at Rachel, who smiled but only slightly. She followed behind me through the ordering line. “What would you like?” I asked her.

  “The same as you,” she demurred.