Inked on Paper

by Nicole Edwards

  Once she’d worked the shirt off, allowing it to slide down her arms and fall to the floor, he allowed himself a moment to drink her in. He was mesmerized by the gentle rise and fall of her breasts as she breathed deeply. Hell, he could hardly sit still; his need for her was intensifying.

  “Now the bra.”

  She hesitated only briefly, and when she did, he met her eyes again, wanting to maintain that connection, to let her know that this was her show. He would make love to her the way she needed, but she was in control, whether she realized it or not.

  She reached back with one hand, then the bra loosened before she slowly allowed it to drop to the floor with her shirt.

  The rumble that started in his chest was involuntary. She was so fucking beautiful. All soft and smooth. Her rosy nipples stood at attention, whether because she was cold or aroused, he couldn’t tell.

  Since he was eye level with her breasts, he didn’t have to move much before he brushed one puckered nipple with his tongue, his eyes still locked with hers. When she let out an appreciative sigh, he pulled her closer, wrapping his lips around her nipple, sucking her into his mouth while inhaling the fresh scent of her skin.

  And when her hands slid up to cup the back of his head, holding him to her, he gave her exactly what she needed, never rushing. Savoring. It was what he’d been thinking about since the second she had walked into that banquet hall.

  While he continued to lavish her breasts with attention, he slid his fingers into the waistband of her leggings, pushing them down over her hips until she was wiggling out of them.

  “Donovan.” Her body jerked and he held on tight as her legs buckled beneath her.

  Only then did he pull her onto the bed with him, lying back and bringing her down over him. Cradling the back of her head with his hand, he pulled her down for his kiss, slipping his tongue past her lips, into her mouth. She tangled her tongue with his, searching tentatively at first, but then she grew more confident, and Donovan knew she was right there with him.

  Despite her hesitance, he knew Kora wanted this, wanted him. He could see it in her eyes, feel it in the way she touched him. If he had to guess, he scared her as much as she scared him. But neither of them could stop.

  “Too many clothes,” she muttered, pulling her mouth from his as she sat up, straddling his hips.

  “What do we do about that?” he asked, still watching her.

  When Kora gripped the hem of his shirt, lifting it, he sat up, allowing her to pull it over his head. But before she could free the button on his jeans, he pulled her back down, kissing her again as he rolled them so that her soft body was beneath him.

  Though he hadn’t intended for it to work that way, the new position allowed her to unbutton his fly, then lower his zipper before sliding her cool hand inside and freeing his cock. He moaned into her mouth when her fingers curled around his dick, gliding up and down slowly, as though she was memorizing him with her touch.

  It didn’t take long before she’d caused his blood pressure to spike, and he knew it was time to press pause, at least as far as he was concerned. He wanted to taste her—every inch—then he wanted to hear her cry out his name as he made her come with his mouth.

  Somehow he managed to free himself from her grip as he worked his mouth down her jaw, her chest, once again giving attention to her breasts, which he realized she liked. But he didn’t linger for long, instead continuing down her body, pressing kisses over her belly, then over the smooth skin below her navel as he pulled her panties down.

  He couldn’t wait; her taste had become an addiction, a need that had to be sated. Bending down, he inhaled the musky scent of her sex before gliding his tongue through her slick folds. Her fingers instantly latched into his hair, sending shards of electricity trickling down his spine.

  He looked up the lean line of her body, meeting her gaze as she watched him. He shouldered his way between her thighs, opening her to him as he worked his tongue along her slit, to the tight entrance to her body. He teased her for long minutes, thrusting his tongue inside, then working her clit as she began to pant and moan, her body bucking, her hands tightening in his hair as she said his name over and over again. Wrapping his lips around her clit, he flicked his tongue over the bundle of nerves until she went completely rigid and screamed his name as she came.

  Crawling up over her once more, he lowered his mouth to hers, allowing her to taste herself on his lips, loving the way she wrapped her arms around him, holding him tightly to her as she practically molded herself against him.

  “Need to feel you inside me,” she whispered. “Please, Donovan.”

  “My pleasure, love.” And it definitely would be.

  Ten

  KORA KNEW THAT THIS was moving in the wrong direction, and it had nothing to do with the fact that Donovan knew how to play her body like a finely tuned instrument. The way he touched her, the way he looked at her … he had officially torn down the walls that she’d purposely erected to keep her heart from getting in this position in the first place.

  Only she wasn’t running away from him. Not this time.

  Here she was, and she was falling.

  One day.

  One fucking day.

  Damn, not even that and she feared she was falling in love with this man.

  That didn’t happen, though, right? There was no such thing as love at first sight. She was confusing lust for love. It’d happened to others before; she knew that much. But it didn’t happen to her. Life hadn’t been that good to her, and she’d come to expect the disappointment.

  She watched as Donovan removed his clothes, then sheathed himself with a condom. He was beautiful when he was dressed, but he was heavenly naked. She could’ve stared at him all night long and been content.

  “Kora,” Donovan whispered, his lips brushing hers ever so lightly as his weight returned above her. “Need to feel you. Want to be inside you again.”

  Yes. She needed to feel him, too. Now more than ever.

  As he entered her, she closed her eyes and held on tight, loving the way he filled her so completely. This wasn’t as it had been in the storage closet. They weren’t fucking for the sake of fucking, and maybe they should’ve been.

  That had been quick and dirty; this was slow and sweet.

  No, this was more and she wasn’t sure she could handle this man.

  “Stay with me, Kora.”

  His breath fanned her face, and she opened her eyes to see him staring down at her, an emotion in his eyes that she couldn’t name.

  “Let me love you.”

  God, yes. She could let him love her. She needed him to love her. What that really meant, she wasn’t going to try to figure out. Not right now. Not when the only thing she wanted was to lose herself in him.

  Kora forced her eyes to remain open as he slid deeper into her body, staring into those intriguing emerald pools, letting him see what she was feeling because she didn’t know any other way to do this.

  “Yes, baby,” he crooned. “Watch me.”

  She swallowed hard as he pushed inside, withdrawing slowly, then thrusting forward once again. He continued, never increasing the pace. She felt every inch of him inside her, hard and perfect, brushing against nerve endings she hadn’t known existed. But more than that, she felt something else inside, but this was in her chest. As though the pieces of her heart were mending even though she knew that wasn’t possible.

  Still, she wanted to believe that it could happen. That there could be one person out there in the world meant just for her and it didn’t require endless hours of conversation before the true depth of emotion would be revealed.

  “Ah, baby.” Donovan stroked her cheek and she realized a tear had slipped free. “I won’t hurt you. Never hurt you.”

  The hot ball of emotion lodged in her throat, and she pulled him closer, burying her face in his neck as she allowed her body to revel in the pleasure, to feel the warmth of his skin, the insistent beating of his pulse.

 
; “Too much,” she whispered. “You make me feel too much.”

  “I know, love,” he said. “I feel it, too.”

  She wasn’t sure if that was the truth or if Donovan was just telling her what she needed to hear, but for a brief moment, she allowed it to be true.

  Their bodies moved together as he reached above her, gripping the headboard and pulling himself forward, going deeper inside her, never stopping, until she wasn’t sure she could handle the orgasm that was blossoming, ready to burst.

  She tightened her thighs on his hips, pushing her ankles into his ass, pulling him closer, needing more of him. All of him. Pressing her face into his neck, she held on, trying not to be swept away.

  “Donovan… Donovan…” She wasn’t sure what she needed to say.

  “Come for me, Kora. It’s okay to let go.”

  As though she’d needed his permission, her body ignited, then detonated when he thrust inside her once more. And when he stilled, she knew he hadn’t come yet, but she wasn’t sure what he was waiting for.

  “Not through with you yet,” he told her, rolling them both until she was sitting astride him. “It’s your turn, Kora. Love me.”

  And suddenly, she knew that there was no way out; she was falling and falling fast, unable to stop, the velocity too intense. So intense she feared the fiery crash, but there was no way to stop it, so she quit trying.

  Planting her hands on his chest, Kora rocked her hips, keeping her eyes locked with his as she brought him the same pleasure he’d brought her, making love to him as he’d instructed, her mind, body, and soul merging as one.

  “That’s it, love.”

  She could see the way the lines near his mouth tightened as he tried to hold back. But Kora didn’t want him to hold back. He’d asked for all of her, and now, suddenly, she wanted all of him, too.

  “Don’t,” she whispered, catching his attention. “Don’t hold back.”

  “Never, Kora. Not with you.”

  Donovan dug his fingers into her flesh and began controlling the motion of her hips, neither of them looking away until she felt the tingle ignite in her core once more, radiating outward, growing stronger and stronger until, once again, an orgasm crashed through her. She rode the waves of pleasure as Donovan pulled her down to him, his lips finding hers as he bucked his hips, driving up into her, letting himself go.

  DONOVAN HAD KNOWN THE moment he’d seen her that this woman was different than all the others. Even if at this point he didn’t know certain things about her, he knew who she was, understood her resolve, what drove her, where she wanted to go. Those things were probably the most important, as far as he was concerned. The rest, he would learn over time.

  And perhaps it was stupid, considering how little they knew one another, but he never wanted to let her go. Not now. Not tomorrow. Not ever.

  If he gave Kora an inch, she’d take it. She would find a way to push him out of her life, and he’d be back where he’d started. Not once in his thirty-two years had he felt like this. Not once had anything in his world come close to making him as happy as Kora did.

  Sure, they had a long road ahead of them, but he was willing to put in the miles, to go the distance, to learn every nuance about this woman because he knew in his gut that she was it for him.

  He wouldn’t tell her he loved her, wasn’t sure he was at that point yet, and he knew she wouldn’t tell him, but what had happened between them had been a hell of a lot more than just passion or lust.

  It had been everything, just as he’d wanted.

  “That was…” Kora didn’t finish as she rolled onto her back.

  “Incredible,” he finished for her.

  Her head turned and their eyes met. She smiled. “Well, I was gonna say unexpected, but that works, too.”

  “Unexpected, huh?” He’d have to agree with her there.

  When it came to life, he welcomed the unexpected.

  Especially when her name was Kora Madison.

  Epilogue

  KORA WAS ANXIOUS AND edgy, and she couldn’t calm her nerves no matter how hard she tried. She’d been at the hospital for over an hour, coming when her mother had called to let her know that Trina was in labor, and any minute now, Kora would be an aunt.

  For the past sixty minutes, she’d been pacing the waiting room; however, it wasn’t the birth of her niece that had her on pins and needles.

  No, that honor belonged to Donovan.

  Since the day they’d met at Sam and Trina’s baby shower a little more than two weeks ago, they had spent endless days and nights together until he’d had to go back to New York last Monday. She hadn’t seen him in five days, and truth was, she hadn’t expected to see him again this soon.

  Although they had talked on the phone every night since he’d gone back and probably sent a few hundred text messages back and forth during those days, she still missed him fiercely. So, if there was anything good that had come out of Sam’s cheating with her sister, it was the fact that she would get to see more of Donovan.

  “Madison/Brashwood family.”

  Kora stopped pacing, then turned to see a smiling nurse standing in the doorway of the waiting room. Taking a deep breath and smoothing down her shirt, Kora followed her parents over to see what the woman had to say.

  “Mom and baby are fine. You’ll be able to go back to see them in about twenty minutes.”

  Janet nodded, then grabbed hold of Kora’s father, hugging him tightly. Kora did her best to be happy for them, but the truth was, it still stung, what Sam and Trina had done to her, but more so that no one seemed to realize how shitty it was except her. And Donovan.

  He’d been more than happy to share how he felt about the whole ordeal one night over dinner. In fact, he had even offered to confront Sam, but she had begged him not to. It was done and over, and though she would live with the reminder for the rest of her life, she wanted to put the past behind her.

  Kora looked up in time to see a familiar woman walk into the waiting room, and she noticed it was Sam and Donovan’s mother. She gave Kora a quick glance, but she offered not even as much as a smile.

  Looked as though Sam still hadn’t come clean to anyone.

  Suddenly needing a breather, Kora tapped her mother on the shoulder. “I’ll be back,” she said, then headed out of the waiting room. She kept walking until she was outside. The brisk evening air felt good against her clammy skin, but it did little to slow her rapidly pounding heart.

  She pulled her phone from her pocket, hoping to find a message from Donovan, but there wasn’t one. He should be there soon. He’d promised her he would be there, and for the first time in a long time, Kora had chosen to trust someone.

  To trust him.

  DONOVAN’S FLIGHT HAD BEEN delayed, and by the time he got to the car waiting to take him to the hospital, he had learned from the text from his mother that the baby had been born. Not that the timing mattered all that much, but he had wanted to be there with Kora by then, to stand at her side and make sure she remained strong.

  They’d spent a significant amount of time getting to know one another in the past couple of weeks, and he had learned that no matter how hard she tried, what Sam and Trina had done to her still hurt. Which was to be expected. He wanted nothing more than to take away that pain, but he couldn’t. Only time would help her heal.

  Once at the hospital, Donovan made his way inside, stopping at the gift shop and grabbing a flower arrangement for the baby before making his way up to the labor and delivery floor. The nurse smiled at him when he approached, then rattled off the room number when he asked. He peeked into the waiting room but found no one he recognized in there, so he ventured down the hall.

  When he got to the hospital room, he heard voices coming from inside. They sounded calm and cool, happy even. That had to be a good thing.

  Rapping his knuckles on the wood, Donovan pushed open the door and joined everyone inside, his eyes searching for Kora before he did anything else.

  “D
onovan,” Trina greeted. “We’re so glad you could make it. Would you like to meet your niece?”

  Donovan gave Trina a brief nod, not bothering to look her way, then set the colorful flower arrangement down on the table beside her bed. “In just a minute,” he told her.

  Without hesitating, he made a beeline for Kora. She was standing at the back of the room, behind everyone else, and he ignored the questionable looks as he sought her out.

  “Hey,” he greeted, his chest swelling from how good it was to see her. The past five days had been hell, being away from her, only talking to her on the phone. He’d wanted to see her, to hold her, to fall asleep with her in his arms, but that had been impossible.

  Kora’s eyes widened, and she looked almost scared as he neared.

  He smiled, then wrapped his arms around her, pulled her against him, and crushed his mouth to hers. Not even the gasps from his mother could pull him away from this woman. And he didn’t stop kissing her until she’d relaxed and put her arms around him.

  When she smiled against his mouth, he forced himself to pull back, grinning down at her. He knew what he’d done would cause a scene, but he didn’t much give a shit.

  Placing his arm around Kora’s shoulders, he turned to face the rest of the people in the room.

  “Sorry, had to get that out of the way,” he informed them, speaking to them as a whole. “I heard she’s doing well.” He nodded toward the baby.

  “What the hell’s going on here?” Sam asked, his eyes narrowed on him and Kora.

  “Nothing,” he replied nonchalantly. “Just came into town to meet my niece.”

  “Then what’s this?” Sam fluttered his hand back and forth, apparently his attempt to refer to the kiss.

  “What does it look like?”

  “It looks like my brother’s hooking up with my girlfriend.”

  The silence that followed that statement was deafening. Donovan cast a quick glance at Trina, who was lying on the bed with the baby in her arms, staring up at Sam in shock.