him, so it wasn’t a hardship.
Not to mention, I would have agreed to snuggle with a cactus so long as Alexander made me come.
“Yes, fine, definitely,” I agreed, rocking against him.
“Fuuuuuck,” he groaned. “Take it, flower. Take what you want. What you need.”
The raw, weighty way he said it, as if he needed me to need him, sent a surge of arousal and desperation through me. I rocked harder and faster, my thigh muscles burning with the effort.
I was close. So fucking close. But each time it was within reach, my movements grew frustratingly uncoordinated and my orgasm was yanked away.
Alexander read my body and took over. He didn’t talk to me like I was delicate, and he didn’t fuck me like it, either.
He slammed into me.
Roughly.
Brutally.
Knowing that I could take everything he gave and more. Knowing that I wanted it. Needed it.
And needing me just as much. As if he was the crazed one.
My thoughts splintered. My body splintered.
My whole fucking soul splintered.
I savored the quiet and peace in my head and the pleasure rioting through my body as I came. I was vaguely aware of Alexander’s low, rough groans, but I was too lost to savor those.
Once we were done, my knees slid out from under me, and I collapsed in a content and graceless heap. Alexander followed me down and gave me his weight. His lips skimmed my spine as he slid his cock free, sending a shiver through me and goosebumps across my skin.
Resting his cheek against my back, I was sure he could feel and hear the way he made my heart pound. “So damn alive, flower.”
And so damn happy.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Dam
Briar
For new nephews
THE THING ABOUT happiness was… it was fleeting.
And had I believed for even the briefest second that Alexander, his delicious cooking, and his magic dick were enough to cure me—which I hadn’t—the sharp slap of reality would’ve cleared that right up.
Because as I held my cell to my ear, I listened to my sister.
My debt-ridden sister.
My new-puppy-mama sister.
My sister who’d acted insane and illogical and… well, more like me.
“You’re telling me you paid fifteen thousand dollars—dollars that you do not have—for a dog I could have gotten you for free since I work at the rescue? And now you don’t want to go on the date that comes with the dog? I thought I was the fucked-up one, Aria. What the hell’s wrong with you?”
Aria slipped into shrink-mode to give me a mini lecture about how I talked about myself, but I was too busy trying to keep my chill to care.
A full body shudder wracked my body as I thought about Aria being the one to get all those red labeled past due notices. Only in her case, they likely wouldn’t be filled with credit card offers or car warranty junk. It wasn’t that money stressed me out no matter what. Okay, it wasn’t just that. It was that Aria was the best person I knew. She didn’t deserve hardship and hassle.
She deserved easy for once in her life.
She’s okay.
She’s an adult.
She can handle it.
Steering our conversation back to the hot firefighter she could also handle, I gave her the pep talk she’d called me for.
It was a little more deadpanned-greeting-card-platitudes and a little less pep, but it was the best I could offer. Which was why I told her it must suck for her that I’m who she was forced to call when she needs a hype man.
“It doesn’t suck. Because I love you… even if you are a smartass.”
She may have lightened her statement with humor, but it was still too much for me, and I quickly changed the subject. “Let me pick Muppet up in the morning. I can take him to work to play with the other dogs.”
Impulse pet adoption may have been high on my list of pet peeves—pun intended—for anyone else, but Aria wasn’t just anyone. I knew she’d give the former puppy mill pup a great home. And, selfishly, I was looking forward to playing with whichever one she got.
I’d be the cool pup-aunt—all the fun, none of the responsibility. I could spoil him good and then send him home.
We talked about her free-but-not-really-free dinner before my stress forced its way past the awkwardness, making me blurt, “Seriously, though. Are you gonna be okay? Between loans and starting the practice... I can give you some money.”
And by I, I meant Alexander because I was broke as a joke.
“How do you have extra money to lend?”