STORY EXCERPT

Mattie

The realization punches straight through me. My pulse spikes, hot and sick, because she’s trembling and my lack of control, my need, and stupid, selfish hunger is the reason. She deserves soft sheets and steady hands, not a filthy mat beneath her and a guy who couldn’t keep himself in check for one goddamn second. Guilt sweeps through me, hot and crushing, as it knocks the breath out of me.

“I’m so sorry,” I blurt, and my voice cracks before I can stop it. “I’m an asshole. I shouldn’t have… I shouldn’t have…” I falter, words failing me. “I didn’t mean to make you feel like… like this. I… I let it happen. I let myself… I…”

Sadie’s hands drop slowly, and her eyes flick to me, glistening. The hurt in them is like the hardest punch I’ve ever caught. Her jaw works in this tight, shaky way, like she’s trying to swallow something sharp. She won’t look at me at first. She just stares past my shoulder, like meeting my eyes might break her completely.

“Mattie…” she whispers and it’s not accusing, not angry, just small.

I run a hand through my hair, and sit up as I stare at her as if I can fix it by sheer will.

“I’m sorry, okay? I’m so fucking sorry. I didn’t…God, I didn’t think… I just…” I stop, and swallow hard. “I’m an idiot. A complete asshole. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, for you to feel… this.”

She shakes her head. “It’s not…”

“No,” I cut in. “No, it is. It’s me. I should’ve stopped. I should’ve…anything. I let it go too far, I let myself… I don’t know, Sadie. I lost my head…and I didn’t think about you. I didn’t think at all, and I…fuck…I’m sorry.”

Her lips part like she’s going to argue, but instead the words come out in a rush. “Mattie, there’s someone else.”

It lands like an uppercut to the jaw. For a second, everything inside me goes quiet, heart, breath, thought. Just that one sentence echoing, hollow and sharp. I stare at her, as I try to make sense of it. Someone else.

The words spin around in my head, loud enough that I almost can’t hear my own voice when it slips out, rough and broken. “Wh...what?”

Sadie presses her hands against her knees, and casts her eyes down to the mat. “I didn’t mean…we shouldn’t have…”

I jump to my feet. My pulse is pounding so hard it feels like my skin’s too tight for my body. I rake a hand through my hair and start pacing the mat. Each step echoes like a hit to my chest.

“There’s someone else,” I repeat, mostly to myself this time, as if saying it out loud will help me understand it. “Of course there is…because that’s just my luck…Mattie Rinaldo…self-professed forever bachelor falls for a woman who’s taken. How did I not just assume you were taken to begin with? You’re incredible…so smart…so fucking gorgeous. I’m an idiot.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Sadie

He drags his mouth down the line of my neck, tasting me and breathing me in as he groans into my pulse like it’s undoing him. His nose skims up my throat, over my jaw, and across my cheekbone. He’s careful, reverent, and wrecked.

Mattie’s lips finally claim mine, and it’s not gentle. It’s a fierce, breath-stealing kiss. I melt into it instantly as a broken sound slips from me as he kisses me like he’s losing his mind.

His cock pulses against me, and my own wetness soaks me through. I gasp and hiss against the floor, as shivers run down my spine with each subtle movement.

With a flick of his hand and a deliberate tilt of his hips, he reaches between us. His fingers curl over the hard outline of his cock through his shorts. He brushes and flicks the tip of it teasingly against my clit. A cry rips from me, and the sensation shatters all thought, all reason. My back arches off the mat, and my hands grip his shoulders, legs trembling as every nerve in my body ignites.

I’m shaking and quivering, lost entirely in the fire he’s ignited and the desperate, consuming need that binds us. He pants against my neck, his own body taut with tension, and I feel him pulse against me. Every beat of his cock pressing over my clit makes me cry out again and again.

Mattie grits his teeth, and his own moans vibrate through me. I feel him shudder as he tries to hold back, but can’t, as I’m writhing beneath him.

“Sadie…fuck…you’re…you’re driving me insane,” he rasps, and the admission sends a jolt straight to my pussy.

The thick head of his cock teases me relentlessly, circling and pressing against my clit, and I shatter beneath him, drenched and trembling as a wild, ragged scream rips free. Pleasure tears through every nerve ending until my vision whites out. My hands claw at his shoulders, and my nails dig in without meaning to as my entire body clamps tight and then shudders violently.

I don’t just come, I break open.

My breath stutters, and my lips part on a helpless moan as my body trembles so hard I almost can’t stay grounded beneath him.

I’ve never felt anything like this. Nothing this consuming or powerful. Nothing that takes me apart completely and leaves me shaking, undone, and clinging to him just to stay in my own skin.

Mattie shudders violently as he straddles me on his knees, and with a guttural groan, he comes hard. The tip of his cock presses through his shorts with force.

His cum spills hot through the fabric, spreading quickly, and soaking the stretched cotton between us. It’s thick and warm and undeniable. My eyes drop, and my breath catches in my throat because it’s right there, leaking out of him for me, because of me, because he couldn’t hold back any more than I could.

A sharp gasp escapes me, and my hips involuntarily lift into the wet heat. The sight of the evidence of his release, of how hard and fast he came just from grinding against me, makes something low and hungry twist inside my stomach.

Mattie’s head drops to my shoulder with a wrecked sound, and his breath shakes against my throat. His hips twitch through the aftershocks, and another pulse of warmth pushes through his shorts and smears against my already sensitive clit.

“Fuck…” he chokes out, voice shredded. “Sadie, I…shit, I didn’t mean to…” The apology dies in his throat when another small shudder runs through him, and his cock throbs where it’s still pressed against me.