Between Now and Always: Forever Trilogy Book 3 Read online

  I can’t believe this is happening, either.

  “Are you going to make me ask again?” the bold me, the new me asks.

  His eyes narrow and his gaze fixes on my mouth.

  “No.” His hand moves fast, gliding into to my hair and grabbing a fistful of it, tight enough that it hurts, but I love it, my body comes to life in a way it hasn’t since the last time we were together. He grasps my chin and turns my head so that my left cheek faces the light that’s above our heads. He peers at my birth mark.

  “I’m so glad you don’t cover this anymore. Every time I see it, I remember how fucking lucky I was to have met you that night.”

  He presses a kiss to my cheek and my eyes drift closed.

  “It was like seeing the sun rise for the first time, Beth. And I knew I wanted those eyes to be my view forever.” He runs his nose along my temple and then kisses the tender spot between my ear and jaw.

  “To describe what I feel for you as love is like calling the sun hot. It’s so much more than that. I’ve lived on my love for you for my whole life, even before I met you…. I would never have stopped trying to find a way for us.”

  I shiver at the tickle of his breath on my ear and the soothing, healing, balm of his words coat and fill the parts of my heart that have been hurting for so long.

  “I’m just so happy, Carter. I was so scared that we’d never get here.”

  “Me, too. But we should have known. Nothing - distance, death, doubt - has been able to stop this love. Now, we can add DNA to the list of our conquests.” He takes my ear lobe between his teeth and bites gently.

  My heart quakes in my chest and I moan out my pleasure.

  “Open your eyes, Beth,” he whispers and I do.

  Carter has always looked at me like I was a miracle he was afraid to believe in – and I completely understood why. We’ve had to hold back so much…Even in the moments we came together – our love has never seen the full light of day. Until now.

  Staring into his eyes is like falling back in time and hurtling toward the future all at once, fueled by two and a half years of pent up …everything.

  “Tell me what you see,” he urges.

  I can feel it, but..“I don’t know,” I answer, honestly.

  “Then, let me show you.” The low growl in the back of his throat is all the warning I before his lips crash down on mine.

  He wraps a strong arm around my waist and pulls me into his lap, spreading my thighs so I straddle him. He cups my ass and I rock my hips, press my chest into his, and feast.

  Our kiss burns as savage and hot as a sun flare.

  Our tongues are beasts that have been prowling, stalking, in impatient silence, that have finally captured their prey.

  We lick, suck, steal air from each other’s lungs, and breathe deeply for the first time in a long time.

  Hope shakes off its shackles and makes a roaring comeback.

  There's no space for doubt, because we're locked in the embrace of a new commandment - Thou shalt not doubt the tenacity of love.

  And we won't.

  Not ever again

  Moving mountains is a mere trifle compared to what our love has done. It’s defied gravity. Traveled back in time and rearranged the future.

  When Carter breaks out kiss, I tug hm back.

  “More,” I pant with unabashed greed.

  His chuckle is a decadent confection of carnal delight and my body trembles from the inside out.

  He presses hot open mouthed kisses to my cheeks and jaw and then pulls my head back to expose my neck. He latches on and sucks hard.

  His other hand slips under the elastic waistband of my uniform and under the silk fabric of my under to cup my ass and pull me down onto his rock hard cock. It’s strains against the zipper of his jeans and I tilt my hips until I get it where I need it.

  “Yes, baby, I want it,” I grind down, mindless to everything but how good he feels. His body is so warm, solid, strong – and all mine I feel precious and powerful all at once.

  The sensitive peaks of my breasts tighten painfully, and as if he heard their summons, his drops his head and captures one through my shirt, sucking hard and creating a frenzied wire of need that runs straight to my womb.

  “Fuck, I’ve missed your sweet little nipples, baby, I’ve been dreaming of sucking them while I fuck you.”

  “Stop talking and show me,” I say and pull my shirt over my head. He tugs down the cup of my bra and, pulls nearly my whole breast into his mouth. His teeth nip the edges of my pebbled, turgid flesh and I feel the first flutter of a release that’s building for fifteen months.

  “Stand up,” he breathes this gruff order into my ear.

  I slide off his lap and smile down at him.

  He unzips his jeans and pulls them down along with his boxers. My mouth waters at the sight of his thick, beautiful, perfectly cut dick.

  He starts stroking himself, his eyes hooded and dark as evergreens as he watches me.

  “Take off your pants and your panties,” he order.

  “As you wish,” I say and make a genie like bow.

  “I wish to make a banquet of your beautiful body. To eat until I’m full, drink until I’m drunk and fuck you until that addictive pussy of yours has milked me dry. I want to fall asleep on top of you. I want to wake up with your breasts in my mouth and this perfect ass of yours bouncing on my cock. I want to fuck you wherever and whenever I wish and I wish to do it forever.”

  My laugh bursts out of me like grass bursting from through soil after a drenching rainfall. I bend to drop a kiss to the top of his head and he holds me there, wrapping his arms around my waist.

  “I guess you’ve given that some thought,” I murmur into his hair.

  He runs the blunt edge of his fingers along the slight swell of my hips and then pulls me close, pressing his nose into my sex and breathing deep.

  “You smell so goddam good,” he groans.

  His hand on my ass tightens, but he leans away so that he can see my face. His eyes are still dark and glazed with need, but his expression is solemn and tender.

  “It’s all I thought about while I waited for you. Every single part of me is yours to rule, Queen Beth, and I intend to spend the rest of my life in your service.”

  Oh, my heart…surely it can’t take much more before it explodes.

  “Oh, Carter…”

  His grin turns wicked, the tender moment is gone. “But what I want to do right now is fuck you so hard that you scream. Loud enough that the people out there won’t have any doubt what we’re doing to in here. Will you let me do that?”

  I nod.

  “You remember how to ride me?” he asks.

  In answer, I put a hand on each shoulder and leg on either side of his spread thighs and lower myself until I feel him pressing up into me.

  “Are you on the pill?” The urgency of the question halts my descent, and I hover, tensed as reality intrudes and threatens to spoil the moment. I’d forgotten about protection.

  “No.” I let him hear the burgeoning disappointment that the possibility of stopping brings.

  But the darkly satisfied smile on his face lets me know that it’s a unfounded concern. His fingers skim the tops of my thighs and come to rest on my lower belly. His touch is reverent, but the heat in his eyes is pure possessiveness.

  “I have condoms, but as soon as we’re ready, I’m going to fuck you raw. I want to come inside you and plant another baby in your belly.”

  He reaches into his pocket and pulls a condom out.

  “Lift up a little, baby,” he whispers when I do, he makes quick work of sheathing himself. His hands grip my hip and he pulls me down, a roguish smile on his face. His hand cups the back of my neck and he pulls my face to his, puts us nose to nose and holds my gaze with his while our bodies finally join in a timeless congress.

  I’m slick with the evidence of Carter’s ability inspire me - body and soul. My body has to stretch to take the entirety of his thick leng
th, I glide down - until he’s fully seated.

  “Now, fuck your man,” he whispers he takes my mouth in a kiss that is achingly tender and yet so sensual and the long, languorous lick of his tongue match the rhythm I set when I start to move on him. The friction is unbelievably electric. I’d forgotten that anything could feel so good. I savor each up and down and moan into his mouth when he grinds up to meet me.

  How could we ever have believed that being together like this could be wrong?

  We’re perfectly made for each other. In every way.

  With every thrust, his body declares its sovereign right to mine. I don’t how I survived without this. Because the only thing that seems certain right now is that if this ever ends, my heart and lungs won’t work anymore. I savor every delicious, slow slide, my body is lost in it.

  He breaks our kiss, jolting me out of the voluptuous haze I was lost in.

  His face is slicked with sweat, and his brows are furrowed and his face is tight as if he’s struggling for control

  “What’s the matter?” I ask.

  “I love you so much. I want you to remember that, because right now, I need more than this… your body is my home, and I’ve been locked out too long to be this polite about it,” he says in a rush, he says in a voice that’s as hard as his expression and before I can respond, he surges to his feet. Our bodies are still joined, his hands cup my ass and my legs instinctively wrap around his waist.

  “I love you, too,” I tell him.

  He nods in grim satisfaction, and walks across the room stopping when my back makes contact with the cool wood of the door. His hips press up, pressing deeper. He leans forward and pulls my lower lip between his teeth and bites the kiss swollen flesh.

  I hiss at the surge bite of pain and the moan at the full body contraction that follows it.

  “You like that,” he drawls,

  “Do it again,” I slip my arms around his neck so he doesn’t have to strain to bring his mouth close to mine.

  “Hold on to me,” he murmurs in my ear and then he lets go of me, holding me up with his hips, and freeing his hands to roam. He strokes my face, pushing wisps of hair off my cheeks and forehead.

  “You’re more beautiful than anyone has the right to be, I’ve missed you so damn much,” He murmurs, as his hand slides down from my cheek and the back of my neck, gripping it hard before he starts to pound into me. Hard, unforgiving, unrelenting thrusts that impale me with the most sensual ferocity I’ve ever felt.

  My breath leaves me in a stuttering exhale and my head drops to his shoulder. One of his hands snakes between my legs and his thumb rubs my clit in just the right place.

  “Fuck, you’re soaked,” he rasps in my ear, never easing his pace, and I can’t take it.

  “I’m coming apart, I’m breaking,” I sob as pressure builds like a cyclone in my core, and my heart races so fast, that I’m panting to keep from blacking out.

  “You weren’t built to break, baby,” he huffs like he’s out of breath, but his powerful body moves with athletic grace he shows on stage.

  His fingers, slick with my wetness reach around and slides in between the crease of my ass. He teases my puckered entrance before he slips two slick fingers inside.

  My release explodes without warning, and I lose my grip on him. He slides his arms up my back and grabs my shoulders, presses his face into my neck and fucks me through my trembling orgasm, I cry out, calling his name, cursing as his teeth scrape over my neck, and sink into my shoulder.

  “I’m coming and I don’t want to, but fuuuuuck,” his hoarse groan reverberates from his heaving chest to mine as we struggle to catch our breath.

  My head falls back, and I look at him through half closed eyes.

  His smile is pure, unfiltered satisfaction.

  “You know why I love the piano?” he asks lazily.

  “Yeah, but I can’t remember right now,” I murmur.

  He pulls out of me and slips his hands under my knees, cradling me to his chest as he walks us back to the couch.

  “It’s the only instrument that can take everything I’ve got, all my weight, all my passion, my compulsive playing. And you’re the same…my miracle, and I’m going to make sure you never forget that.”

  * * *

  “Why are you getting dressed?” Carter snatches my pants from me, and jumps away from my hold when I lunge for them.

  “Because, I’m probably going to get fired the minute I walk back out there, and I actually like this job. I can’t believe we did that, everyone heard.”

  “Yeah, I bet,” his smile smug and when I reach for my pants again, he wraps an arm around me, ignoring my squeal of protest and kisses me.

  “Mmmm, I could kiss you forever,” he murmurs and I decide that if I’m getting fired, I might as well enjoy it. I sling my arm around his neck and kiss him back.

  The door flies open. Carter shoves me behind him so fast, I don’t realize I’ve moved until I find myself staring at his bare back.

  “D, what the Fuck?” he growls, handing my pants to me behind his back. I take them, my hands shaking as I step into them and step around Carter and see that voice belongs to Dane West, the enigmatic drummer of his band. His gaze flicks over me, narrow eyed, but otherwise, unreadable.

  He looks at Carter, and smirks approvingly. “Sorry to bust up your loud ass fucking, but we’ve gotta get out of here. There’s a mob outside. We didn’t give anyone a heads up and now, there aren’t enough cops on duty close by to do this kind of crowd control.”

  “Oh, shit,” Carter grabs his shirt off the floor and I stand there too stunned to speak.

  “What do you mean, a mob?” My boss is going to kill me if anything disrupts the prep for the event tonight.

  “I need to go anyway. My boss must be looking for me.”

  He stops me mid turn with a hand wrapped around my arm.

  “No. Not yet. You stay here until we leave. If they see you come out of here before me, you’ll need a police escort to take you home. Alright?”

  “Sure.” I ignore his bandmate’s blatantly nosy stare and press up on my toes to cup his face and bring his mouth back to mine for another kiss.

  He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me off my feet. His lips move over mine, hungry like he hadn’t just finished ravaging them.

  “That’s fucking nice and shit. But, dude, we gotta go,” Dane drawls.

  Carter presses one last hard kiss to my lips before he pulls back.

  “Have a good show,” I tell him.

  He cocks his head at me in amusement, a smirk pulls up the corners of his mouth. “You’re not coming?”

  I shake my head. “Those tickets sold out in less than two minutes, months ago.”

  He bites his full bottom lip and gives me a slightly quizzical look and reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a white envelope. My heart leaps in my throat.

  “What is it?” I ask, and take it with trembling hands.

  “There are four tickets in there. I was hoping you’d want to come. It’s our opening night. Everyone will be there. It’s going to be the best night of the tour.”

  I peek inside, but only so he can’t see my eyes.

  I don’t understand the acute rush of disappointment I feel, so I shake it off. My lips are stinging and raw from the fierce kisses we just shared. My body is bruised and aching in the best ways from the desperate need we just tried to satiate.

  Tomorrow, when he leaves for his next tour stop, I’ll still feel all of that. It’ll be enough to hold me over until he’s back. I silently chastise myself for being so greedy and plaster a wide smile on my face before I look back up at him. “Thank you. Porsha is going to die of happiness.”

  He lowers his head and swipes his lips across mine. My eyes flutter closed on their own accord at the touch. It is the gentlest of kisses, just his lips caressing mine, but it sets off a riot of butterflies inside of me.

  “Open your eyes Beth,” he murmurs against my mouth.
/>   I do … and find myself staring into his gorgeous green eyes and in them, I see his heart and its devotion to me.

  Just like that, I know that if this moment is all I ever have – it’s everything I could ever need.

  Prince Charming Sends a Carriage

  BETH

  “These seats are right on the side of the stage. This is fucking amazing,” Porsha crows and twirls in the center of my bedroom. Her indecently sheer skirt billows around her endless, shapely legs like a cotton candy colored breeze. She looks ridiculously sexy and not for the first time, I envy her naturally flawless, glowing skin.

  “Watch your language tonight. I invited one of the girls I teach and she’s bringing her ten-year-old sister.”

  Porsha’s lip curls in disgust. “A ten-year-old who hasn’t heard the word fuck before? I don’t want to hang out with people like that,” she quips and puts down the curling iron she’s been using.

  “I’m nervous enough as it is, P, so please behave,” I plead and then glare at the smear of crimson on my chin. “This is the third time I’ve had to re-apply my lipstick,” I complain while I soak another cotton pad with make-up remover, and wipe it all off.

  I’m a bundle of excitement and nerves and my hands have been unsteady all night. I just want tonight to be amazing. For the first time since I left Winsome, I was tempted to cover my birthmark. Lisa’s words from the other night, stung. I know she was an asshole, but she wasn’t wrong. I’m very aware of Carter’s stardom and the scrutiny that the women who date men like him face. If we were to take things where he wants, the nasty comments like hers, would be an occupational hazard. I could handle it, but could he? Was he nervous about it, too? It wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have…it would suck to know that my less than conventional looks could be an “issue”.

  “Why are you nervous? You’re going to end the night getting fucked by your hot, famous boyfriend after he spends the night serenading you in front of thirty thousand people.”

  My hand slips again and draws another red line down my chin. I toss the tube down on my vanity. It’s clearly not meant to be, I wipe it off and put on some Chapstick.