Page 124 of Where There's Smoke

“Fuck, we can’t?”

He shook his head. “His endorsement was the foundation of the public’s trust in you. If there’s suddenly distance between your campaign and your uncle, people will wonder why, and they’ll doubt you. We’re too close to the election to recover from something like that. Too close for my comfort, anyway.”

“Great. Hopefully I can keep myself from killing him when—”

My cell phone vibrated on the bedside table and, a half second later, sprang to life with its usual ear-piercing melody. I closed my eyes and exhaled.

“You going to answer it?”

“No.” I blindly searched for his hand and, when I found it, laced our fingers together. “I really, really don’t want to talk to anyone else tonight.”

“Same here.” He glanced at the clock next to the bed and swore under his breath. “It’s late, though.” He faced me. “We shouldn’t stay here too much longer. One of us…one of us should go back soon.”

I nodded, using that as an excuse to lift my chin and find his lips with mine. We did need to leave soon, but that meant going back to a world that made less sense with each passing day, where people got hurt and stabbed each other in the back, and I needed to stay here a little longer. Everything in the cold confines of that luxury hotel could wait, because what I needed was here in the warmth of this seedy, no-name motel. We needed to leave but I kissed him anyway, and with a moan that might have been one of protest or surrender—maybe both—he returned it.

And all at once, he broke away but didn’t pull back very far. “We’re not getting any closer to leaving.”

“No, we’re not.” I trailed my fingertips down the middle of his back until he sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Can’t say I’m in much of a hurry.”

“But we should—”

“I know.”

“Jesse…”

“I don’t care,” I whispered. I hooked my leg over his and pulled him closer to me so he could feel my cock getting hard again. He was already rock hard, and we both shivered as his erection pressed against my hip.

“We’re going to be here all night at this rate,” he growled, but his protests didn’t carry much weight when he rolled me onto my back and kissed me hard, hungrily, violently, breaking away just long enough to murmur, “We shouldn’t do this.”

But his kiss was desperate, and his arms were in no more of a hurry to let me go than mine were to let him go. We didn’t have much time, but we had plenty of condoms, so to hell with it.

“Fuck me,” I whispered.

“Mmm, I fully intend to.” His stubbled jaw grazed my collarbone, and his warm breath made me shiver. “If we’re going to stay here longer than we should, we might as well make it count.”

Oh God…

He lifted himself off me and reached for the condoms.

In less than a minute, Anthony had on a condom and lube, and I was on my knees. From the first stroke, as he forced himself inside me—and oh,Christ, he felt amazing—I knew there wouldn’t be any holding back this time. No silence, no discretion, no giving a damn about anything except this. One careful stroke to make sure there was enough lube, and then he fucked me. He fucked me hard, he fucked me fast, he fucked me like he didn’t care if anyone knew he was fucking me, and I didn’t care either.

My eyes watered and my elbows shook. The bed creaked beneath us. The headboard smacked the wall. And I didn’t care. So we made noise. So someone might have heard us. I didn’t care because I had Anthony, and at least for tonight, there wasn’t a consequence in the world that mattered.

My cell phone rang again, breaking the not-silence with its intrusive ringtone. Anthony didn’t miss a beat. I might have assumed he didn’t even hear it at all if not for the fact that he fucked me just a little harder, like he needed to tell me, the phone, the universe he wasn’t stopping for anything. The phone went quiet, but we didn’t. It rang again and we didn’t stop and I didn’t care about anyone overhearing us.

Digging the heels of my hands into the bed, I slammed back against him and met him thrust for thrust. Anthony groaned and dug his fingers into my hips, fucking me right to the edge of what I could handle, and then his handleft my hip and he grabbed the back of my neck. His thumb and fingers bit in painfully, and I arched my neck into his hand, pressing against him because it didn’t hurt enough. He gripped my neck harder, fucked me as hard as I could take it, and a deep, primal growl emerged from his throat.

“Oh, God,” I moaned and rocked back against him and let go and cried out a string of profanity—don’t say his name, don’t say his name, don’t let anyone hear his name—and lost it.

Anthony didn’t hold back anymore either. He held my neck and hip painfully tight and thrust into me so hard it hurt, and then he let go of the most spine-tingling roar and came, his rhythm falling apart with every desperate stroke he tried to take as his orgasm took over.

Moments later, while the world still spun and I still hadn’t caught my breath, Anthony released me and pulled out. For the second time tonight, we dropped onto the bed together, breathless and sweaty. He got rid of the condom, then joined me again, and when we’d both cooled off enough to get close to each other without getting too hot, he pulled me into a long, lazy kiss. My neck and hip throbbed where he’d dug his fingers in, painful reminders of how badly we’d needed each other.

He drew back after a moment, meeting my eyes. My breath caught. Something else was in his expression now, something just as undefined and arguably more intense than before.

“Something wrong?” I asked.

And to my surprise, he smiled. “No. Nothing at all this time.” He slid his hand around the back of my neck, fingers drifting gently over the sore spots they’d left just minutes ago, and pulled me a little closer. “I love you, Jesse.”

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