Because he could.
Because he truly did have the power.
Because, as he said, I needed him. I had a use for him. And when his eyes finally met back to mine?
I couldn't breathe from wanting this man.
From wanting to devour him.
And for him to devour me.
And as he stood there, strong and wild in his ability to stretch out the tension filled moment, electricity crackling between us like a time bomb ticking down until I'd explode…. I thought back to what London had asked me before I’d left.
And I wondered, if I really had any fucking clue what I was doing.
9
Hendrix
“Admit it, Savannah. You need me,” I said low and slow after my eyes had traced a path from the delicate line of her neck and exposed shoulder and over the curves no sweatshirt could ever hide, then back up. She’d dressed specifically to torture me, and her aim had been true.
Sure, I liked a woman dressed to kill, but this was a whole new level of sexy. She looked touchable, fuckable, and with my name stitched onto her back she looked like mine.
“I do not.” Her eyes flared with apprehension as if she’d finally discovered that she was the lamb in the lion’s den, not the other way around. “I can choose whomever—”
“But you won’t, or you already would have.” I stalked forward like the predator I was, scenting exactly where she was vulnerable. “Because you don’t want anyone else, do you?”
“I—” She blinked as she retreated, her cheeks flushing when her back met the wall.
“Who are you running from?” I asked, arching a brow as I consumed her space.
“I’m not running,” she lied, her breath catching on that last word as she brought her palms to my chest. She didn’t push. She wasn’t going to.
“The only person you have to fear is yourself, Savannah.” I braced my palms on each side of her head and leaned closer. “You’re the one who came to me, remember?”
“Well aware.” She tilted her chin and met my gaze.
Good girl. The war she fought between wanting control and needing to give it over was more than apparent.
“Admit it.” My entire body hummed with barely-leashed energy. I’d waited a week since that night in the club, trying like hell to conquer whatever hold she had on me so I could maintain a modicum of restraint, yet here we were. I’d also waited a week to prove one very important point. “Admit that you need me because I’m the only one you want.”
I’d only intended to talk it out—make sure this was something she wanted. Now my dick was making his intentions more than clear as I leaned my hips into hers. But I wasn’t some stud service, no matter how I felt about Savannah. If I was going to risk my career, she could damn well risk being open with me.
“Say it,” I whispered.
She swept her tongue over her bottom lip and raised her mouth to mine.
I lifted my head.
Her brow puckered.
“That little trick work with the college boys?” I asked, lifting my brows. “Can you kiss them silent? Distract them with your body to keep them from knowing you a little too well? Is that how you manage to keep everyone at arm’s length?”
“I don’t…” She drew back slightly, sucking in a deep breath. “I don’t keep everyone at arm’s length.”
“Sure you do. You’ve gotten so used to being the one in control that you can’t even let it go when you beg someone to take it from you.” Like tonight. “The reason you’re here isn’t because you want to lose your V-card on your terms.”
“Oh really?” Her gorgeous eyes narrowed. Guess she wasn’t so much a lamb as she was a tiger I held tightly by the tail.
“Really.” I brushed my lips over the shell of her ear simply because I wasn’t strong enough not to. Fuck, she smelled good. Like cinnamon and apple cider and something else I couldn’t quite identify.
Her hands curled into fists, gripping what excess cotton there was in my T-shirt.
Before I did something stupid like kiss her and blow our chance at this conversation, I lifted my head. Besides, I needed to see her eyes. “You’re here because you’ve never found anyone you’ve trusted to give yourself to. And I don’t mean your body. You don’t trust anyone with that precious control you cling so tightly to.”
She flat-out glared at me.
“It’s true, isn’t it? I’m not vain or stupid enough to think I’m the only man whose body you want. But I do know I’m the only man who you trust enough to want me to use mine on yours. The only man you trust enough to let go with. I’m the only man you actually want, Savannah, because I’m the only man capable of stripping your clothes and your control.” It took every ounce of willpower I had in my soul to keep my hands on the wall, to pin her with only my hips and my eyes.
I wanted to drag her up the stairs and give the woman exactly what she needed, but it wouldn’t mean anything unless she admitted that I was the only one she wanted to give it to her. I’d been with too many people who’d seen me as a box to check. Maybe it made me weak, but I needed to be the only fucking box when it came to Savannah.
“You’re infuriating,” she seethed, tugging my chest closer.
“I’m also right. Stop acting like you’re the only one with something to lose, especially since you’re so damned determined to lose it.” Wrong or right, I wanted her as vulnerable as I was.
“Why are you making this so hard?” Her voice caught on that last word.
“Why won’t you just tell me the truth? Why don’t you stop threatening to give yourself to some other guy if I turn you down?” If losing her virginity had been her only goal, she could have accomplished it before even bothering to approach me.
“You’re not going to turn me down.” A coy smile lifted a corner of her mouth, and she arched, pressing her soft belly into my hard cock. “I can feel how much you want me.”
“Because I do,” I admitted. “I have no problem saying it. I want you, Savannah,” I lowered my mouth over hers and spoke slowly, lifting my lips every time she tried to kiss me. “I want you under me, with those mile-long legs bare, parted, and wrapped around my hips as I drive into you. I want your ass in my hands when I flip you over to your knees and take you from behind so you can feel exactly how deep I can reach. I want your screams in my ears, your pussy so wet you’re begging for me to fill it, and your mouth wrapped around my cock. I want every inch of you.”
“Hendrix.” Her breath hit my lips with uneven little pants.
“So the first rule here is that I’m the one who makes the rules. Not only because you desperately need someone to, but because I’m putting my entire career in your hands.” I licked the sultry line of her bottom lip and lifted my head slightly so I didn’t forget why we needed to talk. Pretty sure my wall was going to be gifted by two permanent handprints when this conversation was over. Hell, I was shocked I hadn’t already lowered her to the damned floor.
“And my role in this rule-making?” Lust and anger sparkled in her eyes, the little gold flecks catching in the light.
“You get to say yes or no.” I made sure she held my gaze. “You always get to say yes or no. No safe words, no contracts, no cheesy movie lines. You say no, and I’ll stop. It’s as easy as that.” I’d never do anything she didn’t want. I'd rather cut off my own hands.
“And if I say yes?” She lifted one hand to my neck, her touch sending a shiver of electricity down my spine.
“Then we continue with the rules. Acceptable?”
“Yes.” She swallowed.
I nearly groaned. “Good. Second rule is that we don’t tell anyone else. You know what will happen if this gets back to…” Jesus, I couldn’t even say his name. Coach would fucking kill me if he had any idea what I wanted to do to his little girl.
“Agreed. London is the exception. I told her about us before you made these rules, and I’ve sworn her to secrecy. I would never put you in jeopardy like that,” she whispered, her thumb
stroking my jawline.
“Thank you. Rule three. This only happens once.” Any more and I couldn’t tell myself it was a slip. Couldn’t defend my actions to my already-guilty conscience. Sleeping with her once was stupid, reckless, and necessary for my continued existence, but more than once, and I’d never stop. I knew it in the marrow of my bones. “One time. Never again.”
Disappointment flickered over her features, tightening her lips for a second. “I hardly think that you can accomplish all those things you said you wanted to do to me with only one time.” She arched a brow. “Or are you worried you won’t be able to keep up?” She lowered her other hand and wrapped her fingers around my cock, squeezing me through the thin material of my athletic pants.
Holy. Fucking. Yes. I’d never needed a woman this badly, never wanted someone so much that I was willing to risk my career, my family’s financial stability, my own dreams, but I’d lay each and every one of those things at Savannah’s feet for the chance to be inside her. For the chance to taste even a glimpse of heaven.
“I can keep up, trust me.” I leaned a little closer and tried to block out the shockwaves of pleasure that hit in time with the stroke of her fingers. “And I can handle all that and more, Savannah. You’ve seen me on the field. I can go for hours.”
She tugged her lower lip between her teeth and stared at my mouth.
“Sure, I’ll build the need, the pleasure until you’re writhing, rocking those hips, clenching my cock with more than just your fingers.” I dropped a very pointed glance at her hand. “That’s when you’ll beg for it harder. Faster. Deeper. You’ll let me do anything I want—and you’ll love it—as long as I get you there again and again, and I will. Just because I say this is happening once doesn’t mean you’re only coming once. I’m going to make you come so many times you’ll get wet every time you see me across the room from now on.” The same way I turned hard the second I caught sight of her. My body was just that attuned to hers.
Her hand stilled, and her pupils dilated.
“Rule four. We agree on the date.” The anticipation might kill me, but I’d make it special for her—or whatever women thought of as special.
“Now,” she demanded immediately.
I huffed a small laugh—it was all I was capable of with her hands on my dick. “Sure, just as soon as you admit that you’re not asking anyone else because I’m the only one you want between those sweet little thighs.”
Her lips tightened.
“You’re almost enough to give a guy an inferiority complex, you know that?” I half-joked, then lifted one hand from the wall, giving her a clear path out. “Go ahead. Go ask someone else, Savannah. I’m not stopping you.” I probably would, but I wasn’t saying that to her. “As you can see, I’m not the guy who gets led around by his dick.”
She glanced toward the door then sighed. “Fine.”
“Fine, what?”
“I want you.” She pumped her hand down my cock, and I sucked in a breath, then gripped both her wrists and pinned them to the wall above her head.
“Not good enough,” I growled. My muscles ached from the restraint it took to hold back.
She glanced at my mouth, then met my gaze. “I only want you. Tonight. Right now.”
My dick twitched, and the lust in my veins simmered to a boil. “I’m not the guy who does soft and slow, Savannah. You say yes, and you’re getting all of me.” I owed her that final out.
“Only once?” She sounded disappointed.
“Only once.” More than that was dangerous to both of us. “But you’d better run while you have the chance, little butterfly. I’m going to ruin you for every man you even think about touching after me. That’s not a threat, it’s a promise.”
“I want you tonight.” She arched again, making that little sound in her throat that told me she was more than turned on.
“So eager to be devoured?” I challenged, silently reminding myself why tonight was a bad idea. No romance. No candles. No roses…or whatever.
“Again,” she said, lifting one knee and wrapping her leg around the small of my back, then squeezing me tight so she could jump and get the other one around me, too.
Fuck, that was hot. “I’m sorry?”
“Devour me again. I remember exactly what your mouth feels like between my thighs, Hendrix. If that’s being devoured, then I’m more than ready.” She locked her ankles as my cock rested right where my mouth had been.
“Savannah,” I half-groaned, half-cursed.
“What does it take to break your control?” she mused, leaning forward to place an openmouthed kiss at my throat.
“You don’t want to find out.” God, that felt good.
“You make the rules. We’ll keep it a secret. It’s only for one time. We agree on the date.” She punctuated each rule with another kiss, working her way to my mouth. “Anything else?”
“Rule five, our hearts don’t get involved.” That would be disastrous on every single level.
“Agreed. I want it to be tonight.”
“Don’t you want a little more planning? Something memorable?” I lifted my head, keeping her mouth from mine by only a breath.
“I want you, Hendrix. Only you.”
“Savannah—” There were a million and ten different ways this was a bad idea, and yet the fact that I wanted her was overpowering every single one of them.
“You’re right. I won’t give control over to anyone else. No one else is strong enough to take it. You’re the only person I even considered asking. Just you, Hendrix.”
Her words broke me like nothing else could have.
I took her mouth in a hard, deep kiss, sweeping my tongue past her lips and taking everything she offered. Just a few seconds was all it took to lose my head in her taste. I released her wrists and tunneled the fingers of one hand through her hair while grabbing onto her ass with the other.
“It’s not about being strong enough. I don’t want to take control,” I said between kisses, tilting her head so the next one would be even deeper. “I want you to give it.”
“That’s the only reason I will.” She laced her hands behind my neck and pulled me in for another drugging, carnal kiss. “Consider it yours. Right now.”
“Right now,” I agreed, searching my common sense for the point of no return, only to realize we’d passed it. I wasn’t even sure when, but we had. We weren’t a choice anymore, but an undeniable fact. I carried her up the stairs without breaking the kiss, then into my bedroom.
She ripped her mouth from mine only to kiss my jaw, my earlobe.
I laid her back in the center of my massive, heavy bed, then stood beside it.
“Hendrix?” she asked, lifting up on her elbows.
I pulled my shirt over my head, and her lips parted. At least being barefoot meant I had no shoes to bother with, so I hooked my thumbs into the waistband of my pants, catching my boxer-briefs at the same time. “You’re sure you want this?”
“Yes.” Her eyes flared and darkened as I took off the rest of my clothes and left them on the hardwood floor. Then the big, brown depths were focused on my cock as her lips parted.
“Still sure?” I asked.
“Yep.” She blinked a few times. “You are ridiculous, you know that?” Her gaze traveled over my naked body with open appreciation. “Completely. Utterly. Ridiculous. No one should be as hot as you are.”
“You should see the view from where I’m standing.” I couldn’t keep from grinning. Not that I hadn’t heard compliments like that before, but it was different hearing it from Savannah. I walked to the nightstand, opened the new box of condoms there, and took one out. “You understand what this means?”
“I’m clean,” she blurted.
“I wasn’t doubting that. I am, too. This means safety is non-negotiable for both of us.” I threw it on the bed beside her. “That means I have every intention of fucking you, Savannah. Still agree?”
Her gaze snapped from the foil to my eyes as I climbed ont
o the bed. “I’ll sign a contract if it makes you feel better.”
“A contract isn’t going to save us from this fallout,” I said, my voice dropping low as I rose above her. “Just tell me you still want this.”
“I want this,” she repeated, reaching for me.
Thank you, God. I kissed her senseless, then got a mental grip on my self-control. I couldn’t rush this. Couldn’t hurry. Couldn’t give in to the driving need to be inside her. There could be nothing fast about this. I fucking refused to hurt her.
I kissed her again and again, lowering my body to hers, using it to rock against her fabric-covered core until she caught the motion of my hips and returned it. Holy shit, she was a fast learner.
I tugged at the hem of her sweatshirt and lifted her arms so I could slide it off. “My number, huh?”
“I figured that might push you over the edge,” she admitted with a grin.
“You are a dangerous woman, Savannah Goodman.” I shook my head because she was right. There was something primal about seeing my name on her—not that I’d ever be able to claim her. It was like she claimed me instead.
When she laughed, I unsnapped her bra with a flick of my fingers, then sent it sailing and lowered my mouth to her breasts.
She stopped laughing and started moaning.
I sucked and licked at the stiffened tips as her hips rolled beneath me. “Are you already wet for me?” I slid my hands down the dip of her waist to the tiny shorts she’d worn.
“Find out,” she dared, lifting her hips.
I stripped her shorts and panties off in one motion.
She gasped. “They matched!”
“I’ll notice later,” I promised, throwing them to the floor as I stared at the sweet cleft in front of me. You only get one time, I reminded myself. And yet there were so many things I wanted to do to her—do for her.
“What are you thinking?” she asked, her voice suddenly quiet.
I knelt between her parted thighs and met her worried gaze. “Exactly how many dirty little things I want to do to you, and how many I won’t get to. Fuck, Savannah, every inch of you is perfect.” I stroked my hands over her thighs and the swell of her hips as I lowered myself to kiss her. “You’re better than every fantasy I’ve ever had, and yes, before you ask, I’ve fantasized about what you look like under your clothes.”
Hendrix: A Raleigh Raptor Novel Page 8