Sweet Fate Read online

  “I know, I know,” I said, distracted by the fire she stoked in my lower regions. “I fucked up.” I reached again for her lips.

  Once again she darted away. “If you want to keep me with you, you can’t play this scared routine anymore. I already called Jana and accepted the job at the Gallery, but you can’t be closed off if you want me to really stay. You can’t keep building these walls. You have to tell me how you’re feeling. You have to start trusting me with your heart. You hurt me, Dylan.”

  Guilt won over lust. I brushed her cheek with my knuckle. “I know, and I’m incredibly sorry. I never wanted to hurt you. If it helps, I hurt us both.”

  She cupped my face with her hands and lifted it toward hers. “It doesn’t help. I don’t like you hurting. I don’t like either of us hurting. Don’t do it again.”

  “I won’t,” I promised. But it came out on a groan as she drew a lazy circle over my crotch with her hips.

  “I mean it.” She drew another circle. Then a third.

  My eyelids threatened to close from the agonizing sparks of pleasure shooting through my dick. “I can’t tell if you’re trying to punish me or please me.”

  “My favorite kind of punishment.” She was such a vixen, that woman. Such a bloody tease.

  She bent her forehead to mine as she continued to grind on my cock. “Tell me you understand what I’m asking from you.”

  “I understand.”

  “Promise me you’re going to do better.”

  “I promise,” I moaned.

  “Promise that you aren’t going to assume I’m going to be someone different than I am based on your experiences with other people.”

  “Audrey.” I pulled her pelvis tight against me so her movements would still and I could concentrate for a moment. Then I looked her directly in the eyes. “I understand that I have been an incredibly daft wanker where you are concerned, that I hurt you, and that you are more mature than I could ever hope to be, and I vow on my very life that I will endeavor to be a man who deserves to have your love and affection for as long as I shall be allowed to receive it. Now, let me kiss you.”

  A grin broke out on her face as she brought her lips to mine. My mouth latched onto hers and held there, savoring the connection. I took my time with my tongue, licking into her with shallow strokes before fully stretching out to inhabit her completely. Her hands came up to tangle in my hair. Our breaths came rapid and synched. I bucked my hips to press against her, wishing she wasn’t wearing trousers. Wishing she wasn’t dressed at all.

  With a soft moan, she tilted her head up, offering her neck. I licked along her the curve of her chin and nibbled down the exposed skin.

  “Are we going to talk about what it means that you asked me to stay in London?” she asked, panting.

  “No.” My palms found her tits and squeezed them together. I was going to fuck her here. I hadn’t done that yet, and I definitely needed to add it to my to-do list.

  “No?” The sharpness in her tone forced me to give more attention to the question.

  “I mean, yes. We will. But not right now.” I leaned for her mouth, but she turned away so my kiss landed on the side of her lips. She wanted a more committed answer. “I promise we’ll talk about it, Audrey. Soon.”

  She let me kiss her then, but it was brief. “Like, in Dylan-time soon? Or in regular-people-time soon?”

  I had to chuckle at the necessity for the clarification. Still, I only responded with, ”Soon.”

  “Sir? We’re here.” Something in the driver’s tone suggested we might have been parked at the curb for several minutes. I hadn’t even noticed the car had stopped moving.

  Audrey and I broke apart. Immediately I felt cold without her warmth. I ushered her in through the lobby as quickly as I could. Once the doors were shut in the lift and we were alone again, I pushed her against the wall and pinned her hands behind her back.

  My mouth hovered over hers. “I’m going to lick your pussy so long tonight, you won’t have any sensation anymore by the time I’m done.”

  She whimpered.

  “And then I’m going to fuck you. I’m going to fuck you everywhere. I’m going to fuck your mouth and your tits. I’m going to fuck your sweet cunt until you come so hard. You won’t be able to stand tomorrow.”

  “Dylan…” she gasped. I cut her off with a greedy kiss.

  The doors opened on our floor, and we were so into each other, they closed again before we were able to untangle ourselves. Laughing, I pushed the DOOR OPEN button. She darted out ahead of me, and I chased her like she was a bitch in heat, and I was the tramp that had caught her scent. At my flat, she stroked me through my trousers while I kissed her and dug in my coat pocket for my key. Finally, I had the lock undone and the door open.

  “Don’t turn on the lights,” I said when I stood back to let her go in before me. Then I said a silent prayer that everything was as it should be inside.

  I was still in the foyer when I heard her gasp. My pulse quickened. My heart hammered against my chest like it was trying to escape. Quickly, I hung up my coat in the cupboard and followed in after her.

  The room had been beautifully transformed. I almost gasped as well. Rose petals had been scattered across the wood floor. Red and white poinsettias were strewn in bunches around the furniture. White electric tea lights and evergreen garland weaved through the plants and tangled up the small cart that had been wheeled in for the occasion. At the top, several electric candles glowed next to a silver champagne bucket. Two long-stemmed glasses were set next to it along with a tray of fresh strawberries.

  Audrey’s back faced me as she slowly took in every detail of the scene. I watched her reflection in the window. One hand was clapped over her heart, another over her mouth in awe. Her voice was quivering when she exclaimed, “This is so unbelievably romantic!”

  It was very romantic. Donovan Kincaid was much better at this than I was, it seemed. I’d have to take notes.

  Then she saw it.

  I knew by the way her breath hitched, and her knees started to sway. She reached a shaky hand out to pick up the object from the arrangement on the cart, and when she turned around to me, she held it between her thumb and index finger, and I saw it too. It was as perfect as the image on Tiffany’s website had indicated. The two carat round diamond sparkled with the candlelights and appeared to be floating in its setting above a radiant rose gold band.

  I got down on my knee and reached my hand out to the sweet girl in front of me. To my surprise, she fell down on her knees with me. She slipped the ring on the first knuckle of her thumb and clutched onto my jumper.

  “But you don’t believe in commitment. You don’t want a relationship,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. Despite her words, her tone was hopeful. “You said…” She was too choked up to go on.

  I cupped one hand against her face. “I’m a liar, Audrey. I want a relationship. With you. I want it all with you. I am madly drowning in love for you. I have been since that first week in New York, I was just too chickenshit to admit it.”

  Her eyes widened. “Since then? Why didn’t you…?”

  She didn’t have to finish the question for me to understand what she was asking. “I couldn’t tell you. I could barely tell myself, at first, and when I figured it out, I couldn’t bring myself to share that with you. I wanted you to be happy, and I was convinced I couldn’t possibly be the person to give that to you.”

  Gently, I loosened her hand from my jumper so I could take the ring off her thumb. I held it up in between us, letting it be the underline for everything I had to tell her. “I’ve spent all this last year reminding myself of all the reasons why I’m not good for you, Audrey. But I never stopped to list all the reasons why you’re good for me, and when I try, it’s such an incredible job to even begin to catalog. The long and short of it, though, is that you make me a better man. You make me believe in things I never thought possible. You make me love when I thought I was no longer capable. You make
me want a very different future than the one laid out for me at present.”

  I took her left hand in mine and eased the ring on the appropriate finger. It fit perfectly. Sabrina was to thank for that.

  Audrey blinked at the diamond on her hand before peering up at me.

  With my thumbs, I brushed tears off her face. “I’m beguiled by you, Audrey. And when you said you loved me, when you flew across an ocean to be at my side when I needed you most, a selfish hollow in my heart ached to believe that I might have something that I could give you, even if I could never balance the scale between us. Marry me and let me spend the rest of my life trying.”

  Her lips rolled inward as she tried to suppress a sob and she flapped her hand in front of her face, as though that would dry up her tears. Nodding profusely she managed to squeak out her response. “Yes. I say yes.”

  A wave of relief rolled through my shoulders. I hadn’t realized how worried I’d been about her answer until I heard the one I so desperately wanted. “Thank God,” I sighed. With my palms braced on each side of her face, I kissed her, and kissed her. Kissed her with sweet, shallow kisses.

  “This is what I meant when I asked you to stay in London with me,” I said in between kisses. “Is this discussing it soon enough for you?”

  She burst into laughter, and her eyes twinkled as bright as her diamond. “I’d been preparing myself for a long road ahead. My next goal was to get you to see the convenience of living together. I didn’t think...I wasn’t sure that marriage would ever be on the table. Are you sure this is what you want? I can go slow. We don’t have to commit to—”

  I cut her off. “I want to marry you, Audrey. I know that with every fiber of my being, and going slow isn’t going to make me any more committed than I am right now, because I am utterly and hopelessly devoted to you. Surely you know that by now. So unless you don’t want to get married…”

  “I do! I told you the next guy was going to be The One, and I meant it. Because either the next guy was you or it didn’t matter who he was. I only ever wanted you. Since that first week in this apartment, it’s only been you.”

  “Thank fuck, because I was likely going to murder another man if he were to touch you. You’re mine.” I kissed her again, deeper this time, a primal possessive kiss. The kind that was meant to lead to the removal of clothes.

  But before I’d managed to strip more than her coat off her shoulders, she broke away. “And babies?” she asked hopefully. “It’s not a deal-breaker. I love you too much. I’m willing to make concessions.”

  It pulled my heart to hear her suggest she’d give up something she wanted so much just to be with me.

  But she didn’t need to concede anything on this front. I desperately wanted to see her round and swollen with my child. Wanted to look down at my infant’s tiny face and see the perfect blend of features of hers with mine.

  Though, I did wince a bit at the prospect of sleepless nights and dirty nappies. “Could we maybe just start with one and see how it goes?”

  “We can definitely start with one,” she said, with a devilish grin. The kind of grin that told me she knew I was wrapped around her little finger and all she had to do was get me to agree to start and from there I’d be a goner. “We could start practicing right now even, if you like.”

  “I’d like that very much.”

  We lost ourselves in each other then, making love right there on the lounge floor. When we’d finished, we broke open the champagne and fed each other strawberries before I carried her into the bedroom for another round.

  Later, as we drifted on the edge of consciousness, it hit me again how close I’d been to losing her. How stupid I’d been and how determined I was to hold onto her now. “How is it possible that you’re even here?” I asked, kissing her temple as she lay in my arms. “I tried so hard to set you free.”

  “And I came back,” she replied sleepily. “You know what that means, right?”

  “It’s kismet.”

  Epilogue

  Audrey

  Dylan ran his palm along my outer thigh, his gaze pinned on our reflection in the full-length mirror. “You’re so fucking sexy. Look at you take my cock like that. Such a good girl.”

  I let out a breathy moan. Wow, he felt good. Better than ever.

  I was bent over the end of the bed, one of the few positions I found comfortable these days, and my husband was pushing into me from behind. We’d recently discovered we could watch ourselves in the mirror from here, and Dylan loved that.

  I loved it too, but I was such a horny sex kitten lately that I didn’t care where we were doing it, as long as we were doing it. Dylan had yet to complain.

  “Stop teasing,” I whined, urging him to go faster. “Give it to me already.”

  Despite my pleas, he dragged his cock out of my body all the way to the tip.

  “Patience, my love. This is too good to rush.”

  I glanced at him in the reflection. His eyes were dark and focused as he slid back into me, just as slow as before.

  “Are you watching this, Audrey? Look how wet you are. You can see it on my dick.”

  This time when he pulled out, I could see the gleam of dripping moisture on his cock.

  “Unf,” I gasped. “That is hot.” I stared magnetically as he repeated his leisure thrust and drag. My belly tightened deep inside as the beginnings of an orgasm formed just from watching the erotic scene.

  It was followed by a cramp that wrapped from my lower back around to the front of my torso. That was the downside of pregnant sex—many of my orgasms had been accompanied by uterus contractions since twenty-four weeks.

  Which was why Dylan needed to hurry up, titillating as it was to watch the current pace. “But I’m not going to be able to keep this up long, and I need you to bang me good.”

  “Yes, yes, you’re right.” He dug his fingers into my hips and notched up the tempo to a steady, moderate pulse.

  The tingling knot of arousal began to build and spread at an agonizingly sluggish rate. “Harder,” I begged. “Really pound into me.”

  I wasn’t usually so bossy during sex. Dylan knew how to read me without me having to say the words. As I’d neared the end of my pregnancy, though, he’d become more tentative.

  “I don’t want to hurt you. Are you sure this is okay for the babies?” But he thrust faster anyway, pounding into me so hard, our thighs slapped together.

  That was hot too. So hot.

  “The babies are fine. Keep this up and Mama will be fine too.” More than fine. I sighed with pleasure. A sigh that quickly turned into a whimper as a cramp jolted across my middle. I clutched my hand to the side of my expansive belly.

  Dylan noticed and immediately halted. “What’s wrong?”

  “A cramp. That’s all. Keep going.”

  “Do you want me to—?”

  I cut him off. “Don’t you dare stop!” I pushed my hips back, bouncing on his erection. If he wasn’t going to take my need seriously, I was going to do it myself.

  “Fuuuuccccckkkk. That’s so hot, chasing after my cock like that. Your tits look so fucking fantastic right now. Such a dirty, sweet girl.” He was so turned on, he forgot about his concern and drove into me like I wanted. Like I needed. Hammering into me until we exploded simultaneously into orgasm.

  Dylan leaned over my backside, and placed light kisses over my shoulders. “I’m going to miss this. We need to get in as much of this as possible before Aaron gets here for Christmas, because after the girls are born, who knows when we’ll get to be intimate.”

  “Oh, please.” I shrugged him off so I could roll over and collapse on my back on the bed. “We’re still going to have sex after the babies are born. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this. I can’t live without it.”

  He stretched out on the bed next to me on his side and rubbed a hand over my stomach. “I’m not disagreeing that you are a greedy girl when it comes to fucking, but you are vastly underestimating the exhaustion of
one baby, let alone twins. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this.”

  His playful smirk was irresistible, and I couldn’t help giggling. “So we’ll have to figure out ways to work it in. Sex when we shower. Half-asleep sex. Is it too weird to try to bang while nursing?”

  “I am not fucking you while you nurse our daughters. I’m not ever going to be even close to naked around them. That’s just...I can’t…” His eyes narrowed suddenly. “Ah, I see. You’re winding me up.”

  I lifted up to press a kiss on his lips. “Yes. I’m winding you up. I know it’s going to be hard. But I’m young. I’m tough. I’m not worried about it.” I stroked the side of his cheek with my fingertips. “Are you worried about it for reals?”

  He shook his head. “Not at all.”

  “And you really don’t regret this pregnancy, even though it’s two instead of one?”

  It was his turn to kiss me. “No regrets. I know better than to argue with what fate has in store for us.”

  “Good answer.” I closed my eyes, relishing the feel of his palm sweeping over my belly. Relishing the awesomeness that was our lives.

  Fate really had been good to us. I had never doubted that it would be, but there had definitely been a time when Dylan had. It had been difficult for me to be patient at times. Not all the time, but some of the time. I’d thought about him so much after our Thanksgiving tryst in New York City. Wondered about him. Fantasized about him. He’d made a mark in my life, and I’d figured that was all there would ever be. That we’d be two ships that had crossed in the night, never to meet again.

  But then, when I’d found out I’d gotten an internship in the same city he lived in—an internship I hadn’t even remembered applying for—I’d been sure that fate had a plan for us. I wasn’t sure what the plan was, though, and after countless speeches from Sabrina about how easily I fell in love, I’d tried to steer a course that protected my heart. Dylan had been more than clear that he didn’t want a future with anyone, let alone me, and not being willing to lose him from my life all together, I’d believed friendship was the best option for us.