Collide & Burn by Claudy Conn Page A

creep, leaving him after he had told me about his mom. That had been cold.
    When had I gotten so cold? Yesterday—when I spent another sleepless night wondering if I would ever see or hear from him again. Something inside me broke then and wasn’t repaired yet.
    And that was the bottom line—but I so did not like myself at that moment.
    * * *
     
    I laughed and played a part with my friends—Dee had asked two of our buds to join us—because I wasn’t really there. Dee knew and understood. I had told her everything earlier that day, and then that night I told her how he had showed up and how I had behaved.
    She had said, “Good. What he did was all about him and what he needed . You have to look out for you, because he sure didn’t.”
    She was right in a way and wrong in another.
    Jeff showed up, and as he approached I went rigid. He said, “Please, Charlie … I’m sorry. I was drunk. Can we just forget it and start over?”
    I nodded and gave him a small smile. “Sure.”
    “Thanks. I’ll leave you to your girls’ night out.” He backed away.
    I looked at Dee, and she arched a brow at me. I downed my beer.
    And then I downed another.
    I got tipsy and danced with a good-looking guy. When I got back to our table, Dee said, “You know, this is all about him. So I think it is time for my Charlie to go home.” She wouldn’t take an argument from me, and as I saw Tony, her cute guy, walk in and towards her, I decided that was what I needed to do. Go home. Dee put me in a cab.
    When I paid the cabby and got out of the car, I saw a shadow sitting on the steps to my door. As I got closer my eyes confirmed my suspicion— Wade.
    “What are you doing here?” I asked him.
    “Waiting for you,” he said. “Charlie … don’t turn me away. I know you should. I know I don’t deserve you … I know I—”
    I rushed him and kissed him with everything I had.
    He held me tightly wrapped up in his arms until I vanished in his embrace. The kiss moved into more and still more.
    He allowed me air and murmured against my mouth, “Come on, baby … let’s go upstairs.”
    To say that we crashed through my apartment as we threw off our clothes is an understatement. I know I knocked over a small side table; he knocked over a chair that was in his way.
    We reached the bed, and he grinned wickedly at me as he gently sat me on the edge of it and kneeled between my knees.
    His hands were on my thighs, parting them as I fell backwards, and he began making a path through my wet sex and finding my spot. He knew how to work me into a frenzy and did just that. What was I going to do? I had fallen in love with Wade Devon , and he … I wasn’t sure what he felt at all.
    His hand pumped hard against my cleft, and I exploded with a cry and a series of moans, or were they grunts? Not sure. My body jerked with the release, and he groaned out my name. “Charlie … yeah, oh Charlie, that’s what I want … to hear you go off like that. You beauty, you.”
    He had my butt even as I still went through a series of pleasurable shudders, and he lifted me all the way onto the bed and said, “Again, baby, going to give that to you again and again, but this time …” His voice held so much affection that I stared into his eyes for a moment in wonder.
    “I want you so badly …” he whispered, and I caught the wild abandon on his face as he rolled me over onto my belly and in one fluid movement had me up and on my hands and knees on the bed.
    He bent over my back, and I felt his erection against my ass as he first fondled my breasts and then flicked my nipples. His touch made my body jerk involuntarily. I pushed back against him, and he laughed. “Hungry for this?” he said and rubbed his dick just at my opening.
    He took a moment to sheath himself in a condom and then removed his two fingers that were deep inside me and replaced them with his cock.
    Oh but he slammed into me, filled me, touched every sensitive sexual nerve in my