SNEAK PEEK

MARIA

Too bad cock wasn’t on the menu because I was having a real hankering for it lately.

Not exactly the right sentiment, I knew, as I looked down while the server slipped my lobster entrée in front of me. Especially while the groom’s father finally wrapped up his never-ending toast for his son, Vito, and new daughter-in-law, Elisabetta—or as everyone referred to her, Lisa Marie. “Salud!”

But I couldn’t help it. Dom, my best friend and the reason I was at this wedding since it was his brother getting married, was looking better than ever as he tossed back his champagne glass.

“Being single at weddings sucks,” I confessed.

Dom grinned. “Not if you can find a desperate bridesmaid to hook up with.”

My eyes scanned the wedding party table we were sitting at. “If I wasn’t your date, is that what you’d do?” I asked as he slipped an arm across the back of my chair.

“Since my girlfriend dumped me, it only makes sense. A man’s gotta eat,” he joked in a whisper.

But I winced because I knew the other half of that sentence he didn’t say went a little something like this: since my girlfriend dumped me, so she could pursue something with your boyfriend. Don’t say it, I already knew—we were quite the pair.

Meanwhile, if only I was that carefree to be willing to sleep with just anyone. It was an interesting thought, but I liked to know the man for more than an hour usually.

As I took a gulp of champagne, an idea struck. “Does it have to be a bridesmaid?” I asked curiously. “Or would a wedding date suffice?” More than a part of me hoped he’d entertain the idea.

Dom’s eyes went wide, and he leaned close to my ear. “What are you saying, Maria?”

“I’m saying we’re in a hotel where your family has half a dozen rooms reserved. Let’s find one and fool around.” It was impromptu. It was out of character. But it was also exactly what I wanted. I wanted sex. Dom, I was sure, wanted sex—he was a man, after all. And we were both single. So why not?

He slipped his hand around my neck, the warmth spreading through my body and landing squarely between my legs. It felt good to be touched by a man again.

“Maria,” Dom warned, his velvety voice deeper than usual.

“Dom,” I countered, completely sure of what I was saying.

“You want rebound sex,” he noted, stating the obvious if I did say so myself, but whatever.

I shrugged. “I guess I do.”

Without a word, Dom’s expression morphed into a grin. He slipped his hand into mine and pulled me from my Chiavari chair, leading me out of the ballroom and down the halls of the beachfront hotel.

* * *

DOMINIC

My cock was practically singing as we entered the groom’s suite I still had a key to and slipped my jacket and pants off.

It had been two long-as-shit weeks of masturbating, and I was sick and tired of my hand.

“You sure you want to do this?” I asked, my fingers in the waistband of my boxers.

As it stood, neither of us had seen each other naked yet. She slipped her panties off from under her black floor-length dress, and I was going to unleash. . . well, you got the picture. The way my cock felt, strained against the material, it was in prison and was finally ready to bust the hell out. It needed to be free, and I couldn’t deny it any longer, but I wanted to make sure that Maria hadn’t changed her mind.

Her gaze snapped to me, and she rolled her eyes like a woman sexually frustrated. If anyone understood being sexually frustrated, it was me. I didn’t know how people stayed celibate. Sex was like water. I needed it to stay among the living.

“If by this you mean have hot rebound sex with my best friend, then yes. Now take him out already so we can play,” she said, eyeing me. “We don’t want anyone to notice we’re gone.”

All right, she had a point. Enough said. I pulled my boxers down and felt my cock spring free, growing to its full length.

She flung her panties at me, hitting me square in the face with them. “You can’t catch worth shit. It’s a good thing you never played baseball.” She tossed herself back on the bed, shifting her dress over her hips. “Now sex me, Deluca.”

Honestly, if she hadn’t just said that, I might’ve had something to say about her baseball crack. But I was too busy taking in the sight of Maria’s glistening and swollen pussy. Fuck, she was aching to be touched.

Once again, I knew the feeling well. All too well if I was being honest. I was so damn ready to feel her pussy contract around my cock and squeeze it so tight my blood circulation would cut off.

What? Don’t judge. A man needed a healthy diet of pussy.

I had climbed on top of the bed and was hovering over her body when a rapping stopped me short. Someone was knocking on the door. “Shit!” Maria cursed under her breath, her eyes growing to an alarming size. “Who the hell found us?” she questioned, her gaze fleeting from me to the door.

Why hadn’t I hung the damn do not disturb sign?

“Go away!” I shouted, hoping whoever it was took the hint that I was too busy and lacking give-a-shits to answer.

“Dom, is that you?”

The voice was undeniably another one of my brothers—Rocco. I groaned. What in the world could he possibly want? Whatever it was, he could have it. As long as he left. Us. Alone. You’d think I was asking for a lot here.

Maria swatted my bicep, and my attention snapped back to her. “It’s Rocco. Answer him. It could be important.”

“It’s not important,” I whispered. Everyone was supposed to be eating. Maybe dancing. Definitely drinking. What could be so important?

She gave me a no-nonsense look and pursed her lips. Lips that should have had her red lipstick smeared all over them by now. Had it not been for my brother. That was it. It was official—Rocco was a cockblocker.

“What do you want, Rocco?” It should be noted I’d answered begrudgingly. Practically against my better judgment. And please make it quick before I got blue balls, I couldn’t help but think to myself.

“Vito’s looking for you. They’re taking pictures and have been looking everywhere for you, man.”

“Pictures?” Maria shrieked in a low volume.

I shook my head.

“Why aren’t you opening the door?” Rocco asked, trying the handle again. Still locked, smart guy.

Not that I thought a locked door would be enough to hold him off.

And not just him, if I was being honest. My whole family. See, we were a big, loud Italian family who were in each other’s business nine times out of ten. It was fine when the intervening was in someone else’s life, not my own. When it was me, I wanted to kick their asses from New York all the way to California.

I had a pain in both of my butt cheeks. One was dedicated to my parents and their insistence on knowing everything that went on in my life. The other was due to my many siblings who were a bigger thorn in my side than if I were to have an actual thorn in my side. I wouldn’t trade my family for another if I had the chance, but still.

Maria grew antsy beneath me, but I caged her in, my hands on either side of her. If I didn’t get laid because of Rocco, I was going to kill him. You should find me a good defense attorney because he was going to be a dead man. Might as well be prepared. “I’m a little busy,” I shot back, hoping answering his idiotic question would make him go away faster.

No such luck. “Oh, shit. Are you gettin’ some ass? Didn’t mean to interrupt. I’ll tell the family.”

“Don’t tell them!” I called as Maria’s eyes grew wide in horror.

“Why not? Someone should get laid tonight. I don’t think I’m going to. Vito’s certainly not. His bride’s practically two sheets to the wind with all the booze she’s had so far.”

Maria gushed, as though she felt bad for them. I supposed I did, too. Poor saps. Unfortunately, though, I felt equally as bad for me, and he was right, someone should get screwed—it was a wedding. Don’t worry, I’d take one for the team. I was a nice guy like that.

“Poor bastard,” I called back, unbelieving I was having a conversation through a closed door when a woman was practically naked beneath me. What was my life coming to? The thing was, even if I got dressed and opened the door, I couldn’t take that chance because no one could find out the woman I had in here was Maria. Everyone would make way too big a deal out of it. A mole hill would turn into a mountain, and neither of us needed that. It was just sex. Between the Delucas and her family, the Morellis, they’d have us picking out fine china within the week. Our lives would never be the same.

I supposed you could say our families were a little over the top, and they seemed overly invested in Maria and me being together from the very beginning of our friendship. Something about how we would make beautiful children together. Not that Maria didn’t already have a precious daughter because she did. Her name was Isabella, and she was three years old. Now she was the only girl who currently had my heart. I fell in love with her before she was even born. She called me Uncle Dom, and I called her Peanut.

Finally, Rocco knocked again. “I’ll tell them I couldn’t find you.”

“Great,” I blew out, more than a little frustrated by the turn of events.

Maria tapped my arm and smiled. “Well, this was fun.”

I quirked a brow. “You’re not leaving, are you?”

She laughed and lightly hooked a finger over the gold chain that hung from my neck. “I think the mood has been shot to hell. Don’t you?”

“Was there a mood?” I hadn’t realized.

Maria laughed and eyed my cock. “We don’t even have protection.”

I inhaled and looked around. This was the groom’s suite, there had to be protection around here somewhere. Then it dawned on me. “My wallet.” I always came prepared.

Maria pushed me off her. “Fine. Get it,” she said, a sparkle in her eye.

I’d never moved so fast. I ripped the package open with my teeth in a carnal way that was even surprising to me. But I was desperate to be inside her already. Without hesitation, I rolled the condom over myself before climbing on top of Maria again. “Ready.”

“Less talking and more doing,” Maria insisted, raking her nails down my shoulders, and unbuttoned my shirt, slipping her hands under the crisp white material. “I’m wet and ready for you, but—”

“I know, I know,” I rasped. “We don’t have a lot of time.”

* * *

MARIA

Didn’t have a lot of time might have actually been an understatement. It was only a matter of time before someone figured out I was missing, too, and their thoughts ran away from them. Rocco would be the first to question things.

The time was practically ticking with every throb I felt from his cock at my entrance. He sank inside me and brought himself to the hilt in one strong, urgent thrust that had me arching my back and letting out a moan of pleasure in response. Geez, that felt good. Why wasn’t he moving, though?

“You okay?” he asked, his eyes on mine, concentrated on me in a way that made me feel slightly too seen. It felt too emotional. Not what this was supposed to be at all.

I cleared my throat and rolled my eyes, trying to make it seem like it was no big deal at all to have my best friend deep inside me. I mean, who cared anyway? It wasn’t like we were going to make a habit out of this or anything.

Although, I might not have minded doing it again.

At least one more time. You know, just because I felt like I was getting robbed out of the full experience since this was purely a get-in-and-get-out mission. I’d always heard Dominic Deluca was a god when it came to sex. At least, that was what his girlfriends had insisted on telling me even though I had never asked.

I finally nodded my assurance that I was indeed okay. “You going to rev your engine sometime today?”

He gave me an arrogant smirk. “Wow. I always thought lasagna was your dish of choice. I’m beginning to think you’d take a helping of cock if you had the option.”

I ran my hands across his back and over the angel wings tattooed there that I wished I could run my tongue over. What? We were friends, but I wasn’t blind. Dom was attractive, plain and simple.

He was tall, dark, and handsome with the body of a builder and the face of a model. Which made sense since he was, in fact, a model. He didn’t have a pretty boy look but wasn’t exactly rough-around-the-edges either. He was somewhere in between, and I couldn’t say I hated it. My body was definitely turned on by his looks. Either that or it was the monstrosity of manhood that was currently taking up residence inside me.

He thrust inside me over and over again, my breasts brushing the satin of my dress with the intense strength of his thrusts. The only thing that filled the air besides the waves crashing against the shoreline just outside the room was the sound of arousal as his hips slapped mine, and he pounded into me like the world was ending and this would be the last time two people would ever have sex.

He pulled on my thighs, placing his hands on the back of them. I knew what he was doing—trying to fuck me from a better angle—so I assisted, wrapping my legs higher around his waist. My feet nearly hit his ears as I contorted for him to forcefully thrust deeper.

I almost felt bad because I had kept something from him. Maybe he wouldn’t have done this with me had he known about my dirty, little secret. Although, there was nothing dirty or little about it, and it technically wasn’t even a secret. It was just that Dom didn’t know about it yet. The truth was, I was broken. I couldn’t orgasm. It was a problem my ex-boyfriends had. The only person who had ever been able to get over the fact that I’d likely never orgasm had been my kid’s late father.

“Show me what it feels like to come,” I mumbled, not sure if I wanted him to hear me. If I was being honest, I guessed I hoped he didn’t hear me. It would surely make it a lot simpler. Although, he’d know soon enough because I didn’t want to fake it. I’d done it before with an ex, and it was obvious. I was always real with Dom, though. This should have been no different, right?

If he did hear me, then he didn’t respond, only continued pumping as we found our rhythm, and I waited for the moment I’d been waiting a lifetime for.

But nothing.

He knew it, too.

“Come, Maria,” he demanded, the bedsprings whining. “Come because I’m barely holding on here.”

Shit. This was embarrassing.

I was overthinking it. That was the problem. That was always the problem. But it was hard not to. I wanted to do it, and it was like the more I wanted it, the less likely it was to happen. Talk about a vicious cycle.

So, with every thrust, I tried my hardest to change my mindset.

I wasn’t broken.

It wasn’t me.

I could orgasm.

I would orgasm.

And I wanted to come for Dom. For me.

He shifted, moving one of his hands to my clit as his thumb gently rubbed, first in slow, torturous circular motions before quickening the pace. Then he pressed his thumb there, and that should have done something. It should have sent me over the edge. I should have been in clouds of euphoria right now. But nope. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. All right, you got the notion.

Absolutely nothing came of it.

I watched his body go rigid, his eyes grow darker as a lust-filled haze covered his pupils, and then he continued thrusting until he rode out the last of his high.

Our bodies were covered in sweat, and he was out of breath as he pulled out of me, gave me a peck on the lips, and rolled over beside me.

I laid on my back, my hands sprawled out beside me as I stared up at the ceiling. “So,” I started, hoping he was going to ignore the elephant in the room.

“You didn’t come,” he blurted out in between pants, blowing my thought to smithereens. “Was it not good for you?”

“What?” I yelled, practically shrieking. I shook my head and placed a hand on his chest, feeling the beat of his heart. “No! It was great. Might have actually been the best sex I’ve had,” I admitted, without giving it further thought.

The corner of his lips turned upward. “The best, you say?”

I pointed a finger at him and chuckled. “Hey, don’t get all cocky now.”

“So why didn’t you orgasm?”

I shrugged. “I’m broken.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“It’s true. I’ve never orgasmed.”

“Never?”

“Never.”

He whistled. “That doesn’t seem fair. No one you’ve been with has tried?”

“They have. It just doesn’t work. It’s fine. I don’t need to orgasm.”

“Maria, everyone needs to orgasm.”

I shifted on the bed, pulling my dress down and slipping from the bed in search of my panties. “Dom, please let this go.” Hi, yes, world’s most awkward conversation, meet Maria. Maria, meet the world’s most awkward conversation. It might have been less so if he wasn’t my best friend.

“If we didn’t have to get back out there, I’d accept this as a challenge, and we wouldn’t leave this room until I gave my friend a mind-blowing orgasm. Call it an early birthday gift.” That’s some birthday gift.

“Too bad we don’t have that kind of time,” I replied, sticking my tongue in my cheek as my mind ran away from me with ideas. None of which seemed any good.

“And this was a one-time thing,” he added, almost as if waiting for me to correct him.

Could he read my mind? That was sort of what I was thinking not even a second ago. I just didn’t want to say anything. Maybe I should—say something, that was. Hmm. . . let me think about it.

Thinking about it. . . .

Still thinking. . . .

Yep, my answer wasn’t changing. Maybe it didn’t have to be the only time we had sex. I mean, who said it had to be? “What if it wasn’t?” I pondered aloud.

“Maria?” Dom looked at me and cocked a brow, then went back to collecting his clothes one by one and getting dressed.

“What if we did this again?” I asked nonchalantly, stepping into my heels and tossing his shoes to him. No reason to make a big deal out of it. We did it once, we could do it twice, or we could do it ninety times (oof, that sounded like a lot, actually), what was the difference? We’d seen each other naked, he’d entered me, I’d confessed never having an orgasm. I’d say our friendship had already reached new levels today.

He bent down and put his shoes on, the shiny patent leather catching my eye. “What are you proposing?” he questioned.

I pursed my lips. There was no turning back now, so I might as well just say it. “Let’s be friends with benefits.” I looked in the mirror, adjusted my boobs in my gown, and fixed my hair before turning my attention to my lips. “Only when we’re single and need a fix.” Like my lips, they needed a fix—but of a different kind. My lipstick was practically all gone. Too bad my purse that held my lipstick was still at the table. “But there will have to be rules.”

“What kind of rules?”

I hadn’t really given it any thought at all. But there should’ve been rules, right? My mind turned over a few simple rules quick enough, touching on only the things that really mattered. “One, it’s just sex, no emotions. Two, no one finds out. I’d hate for our families to get on our case. Finally, three, and this is the most important rule, we cannot let it ruin our friendship.”

Dom grinned, tossing me a flirty wink that had me rolling my eyes. “Done.” It was a good thing I was immune to his charming demeanor. The grin followed by the wink was one of his signature panty-dropping moves. No words necessary, only body language. Which led to more body language, if you caught my drift. Oh, who was I kidding? I wasn’t exactly being subtle.

I nodded, my hand on the door. That was that, then. Dom and I were officially friends with benefits. I made out like a bandit here because his benefits were definitely something I was interested in. “Come on, I want dessert.”

“If you want dessert, then don’t leave this room and get ready to have an orgasm.”

Tossing back my head, I laughed. “Watch out, big boy. You don’t want your head to become inflated. You won’t be able to walk out the door.”

“Just stating facts,” Dom said simply, stepping behind me and holding the door open for me to leave first.