she couldn’t hold off any longer, sliding all the way down, crazed with satisfaction, filled like never before. There was no emptiness. She moved, gripping him as she came up, grinding and crying out as she came down.
“Hara! I can’t wait…”
She accommodated him, meeting each thrust. Her world had shrunk to this one location, this one act, this one moment. She needed nothing but him, wanted nothing but this. They twisted and moaned and sucked and plunged until both of them shattered into a million little pieces.
Hara broke and came apart multiple times over the next few hours, each moment its own while they were together.
CHAPTER 15
The loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable;… one false step involves her in endless ruin;… her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful …
—Pride and Prejudice
Derek was full, satiated … joyful. It had been a long time.
Light from the hallway fell across Hara’s narrow back, a darkly golden trail for him to trace with a fingertip, from between her shoulder blades down to that slight incline just before it turned into the tight mound of buttock. The luscious young woman slept on her stomach, her head tucked into the crook of her petite elbow, her long black hair twisted into a loose rope. Her back rose and fell at a comforting pace.
The first tinges of morning light were beginning to creep into the room. He’d told Hara he wanted her to be happy, but the truth was he needed her to be happy with him. He needed to know that the kind, beautiful, intelligent woman he’d stumbled into didn’t find him boring, or worthy only because of status or money. He wanted Hara to like him.
It was crazy.
The girl next to him emitted a kittenish noise. His heart expanded; he pictured the Grinch’s heart, as affection and sex made Derek’s heart grow three sizes.
Why this girl? Why was she so special?
The heart wants what the heart wants, I suppose. But she was worth it. Hara was something special, and there was no need to define it.
Derek was surprised at the depth of his response to Hara, a girl he barely knew, and a reporter. He’d known so many users, so many weak-willed leeches. So many rich weasels and abusers. So many adulators, cheaters, and hard-hearted scam artists. Hara claimed to have been innocent of her father’s mischief, unaware of the rigged contest, and he believed her. Or, he wanted to believe her. She came off as honest and down to earth, but so did most people, until they didn’t. He had a hard time believing in people in general.
Hara wasn’t just words—that was one thing. She’d saved him from the road sign, and kept Naomi from drowning in floodwater. Then, she’d been willing to sleep at the hospital, to be with the girl until her family got there. So, she could be brave and giving. He’d seen it.
I don’t know why I’m winding myself up here. He’d just given her a place to sleep for the night, not a commitment ring.
He’d also believed that Charles was brave, if not giving. Now it seemed his best friend—only real friend—was as hinky as the rest of humanity. How could Charles have let his mom take that money and then never say anything? If he’d just been honest early on, it could have all been fixed and Charles’s career wouldn’t be in jeopardy. Now … if it got out, it would hurt Charles’s mom, and Charles. And the team.
It was breaking the rules, and it felt so wrong to Derek to take advantage of a system put in place to protect people. He’d like to think the people in charge were upholding those rules, but, no. O’Donnell was just like Derek’s father, paying attention only to the laws that fed his greed.
Why was he thinking about this right now?
Hara made that same, small kittenish noise again, wriggling against him. He spooned up against her, glad for the warmth. He grew hard, pressed to her rounded bottom, his chest against her lean back, his hand lightly on her breast, but he didn’t want to wake her just yet. She needed rest, after a stressful evening and then a long night of athletic wear and tear.
The cell on the bedside table chirped, making him jump, but Hara’s breath remained slow and sweet.
Derek patted around in the gloom until he found the phone and silenced it. He squinted through heavy eyes at the screen: O’Donnell. Just