The Curse of Redwood (Ivy Grove #2) - Jaclyn Osborn

Prologue

Halloween Night- One Year Ago

“I never want this night to end,” I said, moaning against his mouth. My lips felt swollen from all the kissing.

“Neither do I.” He dipped his head to my neck and nibbled the base of my throat. His long blond hair brushed against my bare chest, heightening my arousal even more despite him just having fucked my brains out on my living room couch. He was still in me for Christ’s sake.

“You know my name, but you still haven’t told me yours.”

“Call me Z.” He lifted his head to look at me.

I’d never seen anyone more beautiful than him. Soft, yet masculine, features and blue eyes I could easily get lost in.

“Z? Is that a nickname?”

He only smiled before crushing his mouth to mine again. He slipped his strong arms under me and lifted me from the couch. I wrapped my legs around him as he carried me to my bedroom, our lips and tongues moving together in an intoxicating way as we fell into bed.

“Your recovery time is kinda amazing,” I said, as I felt him get hard.

“I’m not like most other men.” Z winked before pushing inside me.

I groaned and clawed his shoulders, throwing my head back against the pillow. He kissed my neck as he drove his hips forward.

“I’ve wanted to do this ever since I saw you at the Redwood mansion,” I said, staring up at him. Blond hair curtained his face, and I gripped the strands, tightening my hold when he pumped into me deeper.

“Is that so?” He withdrew his cock nearly all the way before slamming back into me. “I wanted the same.”

I had first met him at an event held at Redwood Manor for my friend Ben a week or so ago. Sophisticated, handsome, and intoxicating—I’d never met anyone like Z. He had stood in the ballroom, a place filled with over two hundred people, yet my gaze had only been fixated on him. I had gone over to him, expecting him to turn me away, but instead he’d smiled and taken my hand in his, kissing the top of it.

That one action had acted as a spark for everything else that followed—the flirting and intimate conversation where he’d put me even more under his spell…

“Your lips remind me of berries,” he said, gliding a finger over my bottom lip. “I wonder if they taste as sweet.”

“You can kiss me and find out.”

His eyes gleamed. “We’ve only just met.”

“I don’t mind.”

“You tempt me,” he responded. “I suppose one wouldn’t hurt.”

His lips were cool to the touch, and his scent intoxicated me. I felt lightheaded as we kissed.

“This is where we must say goodbye,” he then whispered as he pulled away from me.

“Wait, I didn’t get your name!”

But he was already gone, swallowed up by the sea of people around us.

The first night with him had ended too soon. The party concluded and he’d vanished. Not able to find him, I had left with Ben, not ever learning his name. But then I’d gone to a Halloween party tonight and had seen Z standing in the corner of the room. It felt like fate. We’d ended up going to one of the back rooms to fuck.

Then we’d come to my place.

And now he’s fucking me. Again.

Z made me come like I never had before. I cried out and dug my nails into his back as wave after wave of pleasure crashed down on me. He kissed my jaw as his hips snapped forward one more time, and then he was coming too. He groaned in my ear, his thrusts slowing as he rode his orgasm.

“Curse that damn clock,” he growled moments later, once we’d both calmed.

“Huh?” In a post-orgasm daze, I looked at the small clock on the bedside table. “Oh. It’s already after eleven? You can stay the night if you want. I can make breakfast when we wake up and—”

“Apologies, but I can’t stay.” Z pulled out of me and got off my bed. His sated cock hung soft between his legs. “Thank you for a wonderful night, Carter, but I must be going.”

“Why?” I slid my legs over the side of the mattress and stood up, my muscles wobbly from all the sex that night. He left the bedroom, and I darted after him. “What the hell? You don’t have to run off.”

Z retrieved his clothes from the living room floor and got dressed. He didn’t look at me. Didn’t talk to me. He then headed for the