by Lauren Dane
With her free hand, she cupped his sac before drawing her nails lightly against all that sensitive skin.
He wrenched himself away. “Wait.”
“What? No. Get back here.”
The expression on his face made her laugh. She couldn’t help it. Like he’d never actually experienced any sass before.
Then he looked her over and sent a shiver through her. “Look at you.” He sucked in a breath, shaking his head, a smirk on his lips. “On your knees. Naked. Your mouth is all swollen from sucking my cock. Your nipples are hard and dark. I’ve done a lot of shitty things in my life—I’m not sure where you came from or what nice thing I must have done when I wasn’t paying attention. Even if you do talk back.”
He held out a hand. “There is nothing like being in you when I come. Your mouth is fantastic, but I want to be buried deep in your pussy.”
Not much to argue with in that statement. She took his hand and he hauled her to her feet, dancing her back to the bed until she fell to the mattress.
“I wish you could see how sexy you look right now. Your hair spread around your head. Raven-winged curls. Curvy, like the rest of you. You’re valleys and peaks.” He drew a fingertip over one nipple until she arched into his touch. “You’re all velvety smooth skin and toned muscles. You carry so much power in you, beauty.”
If he kept that up, she’d orgasm before he even touched her.
Then he dropped to his knees, sliding hers wide to admit him as he kissed up her thigh.
He parted her to his mouth, to his attention, which was nearly as hot as that thing he did with the tip of his tongue and his top lip.
She shuddered as pleasure bounced through her, lighting nerve endings, heating, softening. He made her soft in so many ways, but this—with his mouth like a prayer on her skin, with his hands, so strong, holding her in place—this made her feel supremely female. Soft where he was hard and yet strong, always. She could be that with him like this where there was only raw honesty.
Ezra touched her like a man who knew her intimately, and delighted in everything he encountered. That sort of attention could be near adoration, even when he was sexing her up so relentlessly she was about two minutes away from coming really hard.
She dug her heels into the bed, arching as he increased his pace, licking against her harder and faster.
And then he stopped, kissing her thigh again and then up to her hip, across her belly just below her navel. He scored short, blunt nails up her sides and then over her breasts.
Holy cow!
She didn’t even know what to do with how good it felt as he dragged his nails across her nipples. Pleasure and pain all mixed up like he’d talked about with his piercings.
He groaned. “The sound you just made, you’re killing me.” He reversed his hands, drawing his nails over her breasts again. Her eyes rolled back as she closed them, her hands fisting in the bedding as she arched up to meet his touch.
Then he shifted and his mouth found her pussy again with long, slow licks as he tugged her nipples.
The climax that built this time couldn’t be denied. It dug in with sharp claws as he continued to devastate her bit by bit until it finally tore through her. She cried out before she thought better of it but it didn’t matter.
He stood and bent to kiss her. “Come with me.”
She rolled over as he got on the bed, sitting with his back against the headboard.
As she crawled over, he rolled a condom on and unbelievably, her body seemed to think it was just dandy to get turned on all over again.
She straddled his legs and brushed herself over the line of his cock, undulating until she went to her knees, guiding him right and then sinking down, taking him inside her slowly, enjoying every single inch of him.
When he was fully seated, they both sighed. He pinched her nipple and then tugged. She moaned and he got that smile of his.
“Are you going to come loud again. Hmm?”
It wasn’t like dirty talk was exotic or anything. She’d heard it before but it usually just made her sort of impatient and embarrassed for her partner.
But Ezra made her believe it. Made her want every dirty, dark thing he whispered against her skin. Ezra was like a nuclear bomb of sex talk. He just turned her to molten hormones.
“I don’t know,” she managed to say around a tongue that felt too big for her mouth. How could she keep quiet with him inside her like this? With his hands and mouth on her? She wasn’t some kind of fucking warlock who had the power to resist all that and the beard, too. She was only human.
He grinned and nipped her bottom lip. “Not like I’d complain that people knew I did something to you that made you come hard enough to scream.”
She made a circle with her hips with his cock still deep inside. “I think scream might be an overstatement. It was a loud groan.”
He grabbed her hips, thrusting up, hard and fast until the heat of it spread outward.
“You’re so wet right now. I can hear how much you love this. A scream, beauty. My mouth on your pussy as I played with your nipples. You came hard and you screamed.”
She nodded, beyond words. So she held on, her hands first on his shoulders and then sliding up into his hair and tugging. He rumbled as their gazes were locked and then let go with one hand, pulling her to his mouth for a kiss with a palm around her throat.
“Make yourself come, beauty.”
She let go, moving her hand to obey. Still sensitive, Tuesday kept her touch light but with him it never went slow, even when she thought she was past the ability to come.
“I can feel your inner muscles clench around me when you start to get close. Damn, that’s so good. So. So. Good. I’m close, though, so you need to be close, too.”
There was no question. No request.
And she didn’t want one.
She grabbed her orgasm and let it build up, filling her as he fucked into her body, until sounds started to come from low in her belly as the pleasure of it was nearly too much.
“Yes, yes, yes. Come on, with me,” he said.
Then he put a hand over her mouth and her orgasm burst over her as she gasped and groaned. He braced an arm around her waist to pull her closer, his lips against her ear.
“You feel so good around my cock right now. You’re so beautiful. You come so fucking pretty. Jesus.”
She sighed as she melted into him and he let go of her mouth, kissing her where his hand was.
Then he looked at her closely before setting her down and going to get rid of the condom.
“Now I feel relaxed enough to come again in a while.”
She laughed as she got out of bed, putting on panties and a pair of pajamas.
“I can’t see why on earth you’d need pajamas. I’m just going to strip you naked again in a few hours.”
“Because we’re staying with other people and your dog might need to go out in the night. I don’t want Nat seeing you naked. Call me selfish. She has her own Hurley boy. Also I’m quite sure Paddy doesn’t want to see my naked butt, either.”
“If he did, he’d need to be punched in the mouth a few times.”
It shouldn’t have thrilled her. It was just a silly, throwaway sentence. But it got to her anyway.
“I’m pretty sure that’s your answer to all sorts of issues with your brothers.” She pointed to the bright blue scarf she’d left on the chair. “Can you hand me that?”
He sidled up, handing it over. “You gonna let me tie you up with that?”
“Maybe later. It’s for my hair. I wear it when I sleep. I mean, okay, so I figured one night I don’t need to. But four days, and I’m here with you. And you look like what sex would look like if it was a person instead of a word.” He liked her hair as much as she liked his beard so she wanted it to keep looking good while they were in the mountains.
He whistled low. “I look like sex personified. That’s a really good one. But, beauty, you’ve seen yourself, right?”
“Lo
oking like this takes effort, Ezra,” she said on her way past. Wearing a smile.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
EZRA BREATHED DEEP. He and Tuesday had left the house just after dawn and headed out on a hike. Loopy ran past, chasing birds and squirrels, overjoyed at being outside in a new place with Ezra and Tuesday.
They paused in a pretty little meadow long enough to eat their breakfast sandwiches and some fruit and got started again.
It warmed up as they hiked. Enough that he’d tied his sweatshirt around his waist.
Mainly they said nothing as they went. The birds sang all around them. In the distance they could hear the water from a creek running to the east of the trail they were on.
The day before they’d gone out kayaking on the lake down the hill from the house and had a picnic with Paddy and Natalie, who’d chosen to canoe instead. Which had worked out because Loopy could come along that way.
One of the things Ezra liked most about Tuesday was that she never seemed to feel the need to chatter and fill up silence. She was confident in herself and her appeal.
It wasn’t taxing to be with her. It wasn’t hard. He didn’t feel trapped or that his skin was too tight. She never made him want to run in the other direction.
In fact it was the opposite. He wanted to run toward her. If something happened at the ranch he wanted to share it with her. If he was having trouble with something, he found himself reaching for his phone.
The only people he’d ever had that response with were his brothers.
That may have made him want to run away a little. It was big and scary and the way he felt about her was something beyond his experience. He liked it. She fit in his life in a way that seemed pretty effortless.
And, he thought as she headed up an incline and his gaze latched on to her glutes in those formfitting shorts she had on, she dealt well with his temperament and looked fantastic as she did it.
It wasn’t love at first sight or anything. Certainly a friendship, as they’d known one another for some time. He liked her and they were good together. They had a rhythm he really liked. She let him be who he was, even when he wasn’t sure who the hell he was.
He had reached a place where he could let himself enjoy being with her without questioning it. Too much.
She paused as Loopy approached and sat at her feet. “Do you need a break? I may have some cheese in my backpack for a certain canine as a treat for all the hard hiking you’ve done this morning.”
Loopy heard cheese and stood again, tail wagging wildly. Tuesday straightened, scratching one of Loopy’s ears as she did.
“I think that’s probably a yes.” Ezra grinned at his dog.
“There’s a pretty little overlook coming up. We can sit and look awhile as we eat. I brought snacks for us, too.”
“You’re prepared.”
“I have my moments.” She paused, looking him over carefully. “Did you bring any sunblock? You’re a little red on the bridge of your nose.”
Ezra pulled a ball cap from his back pocket. “Got it. I’ve been sweating so I’ll put more on when we stop and I cool down.”
“Too bad it’s so cold,” she called back over her shoulder as she got started up the trail again, “or we could swim.”
Too bad indeed because he bet she looked fantastic in the sunshine, water beaded like diamonds on her skin. Thanks to the hot tub on the deck outside their bedroom, he knew what her skin looked like in the moonlight.
“Next time. We’ll leave Paddy and Natalie and all D-O-Gs behind.”
“I love that you think just because you spell it, your D-O-G won’t know you’re talking about abandoning her. She’s goofy but totally in tune with her human,” Tuesday called back over her shoulder.
Loopy yipped twice and then ran up to trot next to Tuesday after a snuffle back Ezra’s way.
“Whatever. I don’t feel bad for wanting you naked and all to myself.”
She laughed and kept walking.
The beauty of the overlook she’d mentioned hit him as he came around a bend in the trail. The valley spread out below with more mountains across the divide. A lake glittered off in the distance, brilliantly, frigidly blue.
She paused to spread out the sheet on the grass. Loopy lay on a sunny patch, her belly on the cool ground.
Ezra pulled out a lightweight bowl he used to give Loopy water when they were out on an adventure. She watched him, tongue lolling as he poured water.
He petted her as she finally moved to drink. “Good girl.” It had taken a while to get her to stop rushing to her food when she’d been a puppy. She’d inhale it and puke it up, or spill water everywhere. But he’d been patient and she was a smart dog and now she had impeccable manners.
He headed to sit with Tuesday and stare out over the incredible view. She handed him an apple and then some cheese he’d seen her dicing that morning.
“This is for her?”
“Yeah. That’s how you do it, right? The size of the cubes?”
“Yeah. Yes. Thank you. That was pretty nice of you.”
She shrugged. “I like your dog. She was coming out here on this hike, too, so I figured she’d need some protein.”
“Don’t minimize it. Kindness is important and rarer than it should be sometimes.”
“I’ll make you a deal, Ezra. I will if you will.”
He frowned a moment and then grunted as the pointed comment hit its mark.
“You’re welcome,” she responded not just to his compliment about the dog, but the reminder, too.
He gave Loopy the cheese and then one of the jerky treats he’d brought along, as well. She did need protein just like humans did.
“Almonds. Hummus. Carrots and some dried apricots.” She put out a bunch of little containers and they had a wonderful feast out there where the air was clean and full of nothing but sounds of nature. No planes overhead even.
After she packed the food back, he brought her to the sheet before she could stand up. “Wait a minute. I have a few more things I’d like to get a taste of before we start back.”
She met his lips, parting hers to allow the sweep of his tongue. He nipped her bottom lip, meandering into the kiss at his own pace and she let him. The pride of that burned in his belly.
“Now I feel like I can make it back.” He rolled off and up to his feet a few minutes later.
She took the hand he’d extended and he pulled her to stand.
In just a few short minutes he’d applied more sunscreen to his nose while she packed up and they were headed back to the house.
“How’d you find this place anyway? What a fantastic location for a house. I’d never want to leave if I lived up here. Well, actually maybe in the winter I’d think differently.”
“There’s another trail, it heads in pretty much the same trajectory as this one but it’s a little farther down the hill.” She pointed. “So we were on it and I saw this trail and I wanted to know where it led. And it led to the backyard of the house, which was empty but had a sign out front with the number for the rental agency. We came back for my birthday the next year and we’ve returned each year since.”
He wondered if Eric had been there. Had held her for the meager hours of sleep she allowed herself in that big bed in the room under the eaves.
“How long now?”
She turned to face him. “He never came up here. I discovered it after. Is it weird for you?”
He lengthened his stride to catch up. “Is what weird?”
“That I was married. That I loved someone else. That he died. I don’t know. It’s weird to me sometimes.”
“It’s not weird. It’s... I never expected to feel this.”
He stopped and she did as well, though she gave him a little space as she watched him. Her features were blank but her eyes told him she was nervous. Hell, he was, too, he supposed.
“I’ve been alone a long time. You make me less alone. Sometimes that might even be because I can look into your eyes and see ghosts. You l
oved someone before me. Okay. I don’t care about what happened before me. It made you a better person I’m sure. That you were married? Also not weird. But I’m working on how I feel about it. Mainly it happened before I knew you. It happened at a time my life was a hot mess and I had to rebuild myself minute by minute, day by day. Sometimes I think you might know how to do this thing—” he waved a hand between them “—better than I do. Which to be fair isn’t hard because I don’t know what I’m doing at all. I just know I really like to be around you.”
* * *
TUESDAY SUCKED IN a breath and then let it out slow. Wow. He was so emotionally vulnerable to her right at that moment and she didn’t want to ruin it.
Humbled, she licked her lips and finally spoke. “I like being around you, too. And maybe I don’t know how to feel about it, either. Not all the way. Mainly it’s that you’re charming and sexy, handsome—you’re really good in bed and you like doing the same things I do. It’s easy to like being around you.”
He stepped closer, filling the gap she’d deliberately left in case he felt the need to escape the discussion.
“Is it weird? That he died? Well that part sucks. I’m sorry because if you loved him he had to be a pretty rad dude. And I’m sorry because you lost someone you loved. Sometimes I don’t quite know what to do with all this history. Like I want to ask but I don’t want to stir you up and hurt you. You’re important to me and that happened to me while I wasn’t looking. I’m off balance. Hell, I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing.”
“And you don’t like that. Not being in control of every single thing.”
“There was a time in my life when I thrived on chaos. I embraced it. And you know how that turned out.”
That was it right then. He was scared. She had her own baggage to carry on her back, but Ezra was scared of failing and of ever being what he’d been when he was addicted.
Scared of liking something too much? Needing it too much?
“Unforeseen isn’t the same as chaos. So you didn’t plan on me. Big deal. You don’t plan for what this is.” She flapped a hand. “This...draw I feel every time I’m around you. I could deal with it if it was just physical. Fuck you out of my system and then we could be friends because we have chemistry.”