Secret Obsession

by D. M. Mortier

  Colt: “You know the limitations.”

  Imani: “You want to screw me? So what? More than half the men in my office want that. And you’re willing to jeopardize my four-year relationship with your ward, your relationship with her and the rest of your family to scratch an itch? Am I right? Because I can get that from any man.”

  When the call with Colt abruptly ended, Imani had no idea what to think. And then, when she tried calling him back and he didn’t pick up, she realized that he’d hung up on her deliberately. At first, she was pissed. Good riddance, she thought. Who needs his bullshit anyway? He was probably just blowing smoke up my ass just to get in my panties. Sonofabitch!

  And then the emotional tears started. Imani was shocked at how heartsick she felt. Maybe she’d pushed too hard. She’d been building their relationship in her head for so long that maybe she was expecting too much. Maybe he thought she was a slut when she mentioned the men in her office. She was lost as to how to fix this if he didn’t even take her calls. Who hung up on someone after declaring themself anyway?

  They weren’t in a relationship, but her heart didn’t seem to know that. She felt such a sense of loss that tears ran unchecked down her cheeks. There was a hole in her heart the size of a cannon. She curled into a fetal position and hugged her stomach as pain seemed to cramp through her entire body. She’d been crushin’ on him for years, and she’d still had no idea that her feelings for him had become so bone deep that he had the power to decimate her to such an extent.

  Her cellphone suddenly rang, and the sound was loud in the quiet dark night. On the second ring, she answered, fearing that it may wake Sarah, who was probably asleep at this late hour.

  “Hello.” Her voice was groggy from the tears still sliding down her cheeks.

  “Come open the door for me,” Colt muttered before hanging up.

  Imani was stunned by his sudden appearance at their apartment. Worried about him ringing back and possibly waking Sarah, she gingerly opened her bedroom, which was at the top of the stairs, while Sarah’s bedroom was downstairs. They had purposefully selected an apartment like this so that Imani wouldn’t be disturbed by Sarah’s late-night practices. Never before had Imani had the need to employ any kind of stealth behavior for her own activities.

  She opened the door without removing the chain and peered out. “What’re you doing here?”

  “Open the door, Imani.” He used that I’m-not-taking-any-shit voice.

  Imani hesitated.

  “Would you prefer I ring the doorbell and wake Sarah?”

  “Psst.” Imani hissed as she opened the door and stepped back to put some space between them.

  Colt walked in and closed the door behind him. He deliberately locked the door and put the chain back in place before turning to her.

  “Now, what the hell do you mean about men at work wanting to fuck you? Who?”

  “Keep your voice down,” she whispered fiercely as she started backing away from him. “And I never said that.”

  Colt stalked her every move, and he maintained an intent scowl on his face that she immediately recognized as his colonel’s “don’t fuck with me” demeanor. “Who are you wanting to fuck instead of me?”

  “Stop that,” she hissed as he kept coming toward her.

  “Who?” He kept closing the space between them, forcing her to back into the stairs because she was trying to get as far away from Sarah’s room as she could and also avoiding going toward the kitchen or living room. Both had been scenes of their most recent unmitigated surrenders.

  “Keep going,” he ordered.

  “I already told you that I’m not one of your men to be ordered around.” She folded her arms under her breasts, braced her legs apart as though preparing for battle, and glared at him.

  He stared down at her coolly. “Do you walk, or do I carry you?”

  She frowned her annoyance at his no-give attitude even while she maintained her stance. She’d never tell him how much she loved his commanding presence.

  “Okay then,” he muttered softly right before bending to push his shoulder against her stomach. He placed a large palm on her ass to keep her in place and marched up the stairs with her draped face down over his shoulder.

  “Colt,” she shrieked and then immediately slapped a hand over her mouth to stop any sound that may wake Sarah. She squirmed and kicked, but a hard slap on her ass had her quieting down at the unexpected quiver the sting elicited from her clit. She moved again experimentally, and again, he slapped her ass. She bit her lip hard, but it still could not disguise the moan she was trying too hard to stifle.

  When Colt arrived at the top of the stairway, he let her slide down his body with his arm still holding her against him.

  Closing her eyes in ecstasy, Imani was congratulating herself on not making any sound of enjoyment at the feel of his hardness against her sensitive skin. However, when she opened her eyes, she blushed with embarrassment when she realized he’d been watching her.

  “Don’t ever threaten me with another man, ever.” His voice let her know that he wasn’t fucking around about that.

  “I wasn’t threatening you. I was simply stating facts.”

  His nostrils flared as though he were trying to control his emotions. He didn’t seem angry so much as he seemed volatile and on edge. Imani didn’t know whether to apologize or run.

  He took a step back as if to leave, and she immediately knew that she didn’t want that. She closed the space between them again, placed her palm on his chest, and waited for his reaction.

  She felt as though she was waiting forever before he eventually bent his head and gave her a light kiss on the corner of her lips before straightening and looking down at her inquiringly.

  She didn’t know what his question was, but at the moment, she didn’t particularly care. She wanted his full kiss. Standing on the tips of her toes, she still wasn’t tall enough to reach his lips. Instead, her lips barely grazed his stubbled chin. She gave him soft little kisses wherever she could reach.

  He let her have her way and, at some point, rested his hand around her waist.

  She kept at it, wanting a reaction from him.

  His gaze smoldered down at her with unmistakable lust.

  She wanted to smile in triumph. She stepped even closer to him and wound her arms around his neck to give herself better leverage to nibble on his chin.

  He muttered with impatience, lowered his head, and covered her lips with a kiss that was laced with ravenous urgency.

  Imani returned his fervor, and soon they were both shaking with undeniable need. He lifted her high against his chest and then angled his head to go in deep. Wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, she gave him no opportunity to retreat, eagerly twirling her tongue around his as he’d done to her before.

  He gripped her ass and strode to her bedroom door a few feet away from the landing. He pressed her back into the hard wood of the closed door, dug his fingers into the round cheeks of her ass, and ground his hips against hers.

  She moaned loudly as desire overwhelmed her senses.

  He gently caressed her breasts, her stomach, her hips and thighs through the thin cotton of her nightshirt. At the feel of his hard length where she ached for him most, she tried to match him grind for grind, but he held her immobile with absolute strength, forcing her to be patient.

  Being with him always felt so right, and now was no different. She felt lit from within with white-hot need that consumed her and illuminated from every pore of her skin. Never had she ever wanted anything as badly as she wanted him deep inside of her. Finding it impossible to contain her feelings, she tunneled her fingers into the silky strands of his hair and held him as she kissed him with all the passion and love pulsing through her veins.

  He returned her passion with equal intensity by stroking his tongue against hers with the same rhythm he was stroking his hips against hers. He soon discarded her flims
y nightshirt with a frenzy she silently cheered on.

  She was impressed by his dexterity and strength as he carried her into her bedroom, discarding her tiny panty from her hips as he went, leaving an untidy trail of clothes on the floor leading from the hall to her bedroom. He placed her onto the cool surface of the bedspread.

  The shock of the cool air on her naked flesh as Colt stood to remove his clothes momentarily jolted her out of her sensual fog. What the hell am I doing? was her first thought and then was quickly followed by, Damn, sweet baby Jesus, he’s beautiful!

  For a man in his forties, Colt didn’t have an ounce of excess flesh on his massive frame. He stood before her completely nude, unabashed. She let her gaze bypass his hips and cock, too shy to look too closely at such an intimate part of him. No, her gaze instead roamed over his broad chest covered with a light carpet of dark blond hair, massive tattooed biceps, flat stomach, which was chiseled with compact, delineating muscle, and trunk-like thighs. His body was the visible epitome of a virile man, soldier, and protector. He was built like his long-dead Viking ancestors, big, strong, golden. And the many scars about his body were a testament to the violence he’d suffered and dished out in his career.

  “Imani.”

  The gentleness of his voice forced her to immediately meet his gaze.

  “I wouldn’t hurt you for the world, sugar. I have to know. Do ya want this?” His southern accent seemed more pronounced at that moment.

  She sucked in her breath at his blunt question.

  “I want there to be no mistake or misunderstandin’ between us. I want ya with me. No misunderstandin’ that you’re mine.” Colt stared down at her urgently. “No waverin’ about what people think or what they’re expectin’. You know what I’m offerin’. Do ya want this?”

  After the disaster of earlier tonight when she thought she’d lost him, this was not a hard question for her. She knew she wanted him at any price and didn’t care now about his limitations on their relationship. She wanted him. “Yes,” she whispered. “I want you. I want us.”

  “And no doubt about the exclusivity of this relationship?” Colt persisted.

  “As long as that goes both ways, you’ve got no argument from me.”

  “This is our secret now, and we deal with the family later?” He looked pained at having had to ask.

  She knew he chafed at the idea of sneaking around. But he knew she was right. His family wouldn’t accept their relationship easily. Justin, the fun-loving and laidback person that he was, would probably be the only one to not give Colt shit about it. However, Sarah would be devastated, as she never thought any woman was good enough for her guardian. And she would feel betrayed. His parents came from an era where races didn’t mix. While they accepted the friendship between her and Sarah, would they accept her relationship with Colt? She shuddered thinking of the potential disaster ahead with his family.

  “Yes, our secret,” she whispered and gave him an uncertain smile.

  He nodded as though he hadn’t expected anything else from her but her agreement. He sat on the edge of her queen-sized bed and slowly trailed his fingers from her lips to her neck to her pert breasts. She whimpered.

  “Shh,” he murmured soothingly as he lovingly cupped her breast, first one globe and then the other, not lingering but exploring, caressing her with his fingers and his gaze, roaming farther down her toned stomach and her hips. “You’re so fuckin’ beautiful, so soft,” he said, his voice husky.

  Imani shivered in anticipation at the molten heat in eyes. He bent his head and trailed kisses along her ankles, up her calf, slowly toward her knees. The stubble of hair on his chin and jawline grazed the skin of her legs and inner thighs.

  Her trembling intensified. She loved the little stings of pain-and-pleasure mix.

  Gripping one of her thighs, he lifted her leg and draped it over his shoulder as he continued with lingering kisses, sometimes using his tongue to lick and other times using his teeth to nip her inner thighs. He opened his lips over her most intimate flesh.

  She moaned his name. Twisting her head from side to side on the pillow in agitated need, she pushed her fingers into his hair and tried to grind her hips harder onto his tongue.

  He held her firmly but gently. He was in control here, and the next hard dip of his tongue into her heat let her know that with no uncertain terms. Holding her hips in his palms, he licked from her dewy opening to her engorged bud, over and over again, strumming at her clit.

  She writhed uncontrollably beneath him and moaned loudly until her voice was weak and hoarse.

  He stabbed the hard tip of his tongue at her center.

  She was completely undone and splintered into an orgasm that had her spasming violently. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes at the intensity of her emotions.

  He licked and petted her until she quieted down.

  As he trailed kisses along the now damp skin of her stomach, she whimpered in distress from the sensory overload. It was too much.

  He pulled the hard tip of her breast into his mouth and suckled.

  “Colt.” She wailed his name, uncaring of who heard her as he continued to make love to her with exquisite tenderness.

  He kissed her and swallowed her cries.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down on top of her. She loved the feeling of being pinned down under him, his masculine heat surrounding her, and the feeling of him dominating her smaller frame. His skin felt like warm steel under her fingers. She loved it, loved him.

  Lifting her thighs to settle his hips between her legs, he teased her wet slit with the swollen head of his cock. “Mine,” he murmured.

  Her brain was so foggy with desire it took a moment for her to understand his claim and demand for her to acknowledge it. He wasn’t asking a question; he was stating fact. She smiled sweetly up at him and reached up to kiss him softly. “Hell yeah,” she whispered seductively against his lips.

  He growled deep in his throat before he fused their lips in a ravenous kiss even as he slowly fed his cock into her heat.

  She hissed at the shocking tingle of desire that zipped through her at the feel of his thick shaft abrading the sensitive flesh of her clit as he drove inch by inch into her.

  He stilled as he butted against the thin flesh protecting her virginity. He lifted his head and held her gaze as he pulled out and then slowly slid back into her inch by inch.

  She closed her eyes at the incredible feel of him stretching her.

  “Look at me,” he demanded.

  His voice compelled her to obey. Holding his gaze added significant intimacy to an already intimate moment. She felt as though they were connected in every possible way. Every thought, every touch, every breath seemed to merge. He pushed past the barrier that held her innocence, and she reveled in his possession, trembling in ecstasy. He closed his eyes and stilled as though overwhelmed as well by the poignant moment. When he opened his eyes again, his emotions were naked and unguarded.

  She held his face in her palm and lifted her head to kiss him tenderly.

  He groaned and gently, slowly lifted his hips before stroking back into her with one power thrust to lodge deep inside of her.

  She cried out his name at the stunning sensations assailing her all at once.

  “Easy, baby.” The guttural rasp in his voice intensified the tingle up her spine. The veins of his neck stood out at the strain he seemed to be exerting to maintain some semblance of control.

  She slid her palm up his back and dug her nails in for purchase.

  And then he slid out of her and drove into her with aching tenderness. He stroked in and out of her wet center in deliberate, deep strokes.

  Her cries echoed throughout the room. She was in mindless ecstasy at the incredible feel of him deep inside her erogenous inner walls.

  His gaze glistened fiercely down at her as he silently demanded that she look at him. “So mine, baby,” he growled.


  “Yes,” she gasped as he grabbed her ass and drove into her.

  He stroked in and out of her, slow and deep, and fused his lips with hers in a passionate kiss.

  Her senses were overwhelmed by the taste of him on her tongue, the feel of his chiseled chest covered with a light carpet of hair sliding against her pebbled nipples, the scent of his clean masculinity in her nostrils, and his granite cock sliding in and out of her core. She couldn’t withstand it; he consumed her, and she climaxed in startling pleasure.

  He muffled her cries with a carnal kiss as he drove into her.

  She was stunned at how quickly she was engulfed again with white-hot need.

  Holding her legs high around his waist, he was persistent, dogged in his demand that she give him everything, every cry, every shiver, and every ripple of passion until they both crested, and then they were falling into the abyss with no purchase, only pure unadulterated pleasure.

  Moments later they collapsed to the mattress. She snuggled against him as he wrapped his arms around her and clutched her close. She was on the periphery of sleep when he murmured close to her ear, “No one comes between us.” She smiled blissfully as she fell into a deep sleep.

  Chapter Six

  Imani woke with the sun in her face as usual, but what was different was the sweet ache between her thighs. She didn’t have to look to know that Colt was no longer beside her. He’d woken her up a little before dawn to lift her in his arms and take her to a warm bath. She’d protested half-heartedly the entire time, as she’d been barely conscious. He ran the bath sponge over her skin and was particularly gentle when he washed between her thighs. By the time he took her back to the bed, she’d been wide-awake and fiercely wanted him back deep inside of her again.

  “Sarah will be awake soon,” he murmured as he resisted her attempts to pull him on top of her.

  She frowned in disappointment.

  He kissed her tenderly before dressing and quietly creeping from her bedroom and the apartment.

  She was brushing her teeth when she heard Sarah calling her as she entered Imani’s bedroom. Imani came out of the bathroom and walked toward her best friend. “Girl, it’s barely eight in the morning. What’re you doing up?”