“I’ll just be on the other side of the door if you need—”
“Stay,” she said a bit too quickly. “Please?”
His eyes searched hers.
There was an asking glint in his gaze.
What is this?
I don’t know, she wanted to say.
“Turn around,” she said with a teasing smile.
He did and bowed his head, his blond hair falling forward. The swell of his muscular shoulders was outlined beneath the thin material of his shirt.
Lola, as quickly as she could, peeled her own shirt from her sore body with her one good arm, then shimmied out of her panties and bra.
She tested the water with a toe first and found it perfectly piping hot.
Thorin had filled it with the bath milk so the water was just opaque enough to give her coverage.
She slipped in, hissing as the water burned up her legs.
“Is it too hot?” Thorin asked.
“Oh no,” she said as she eased her body beneath the surface. “It’s perfect. You can turn around.”
He turned so slowly, Lola wondered if he was afraid of her naked body and when he finally faced her, he dodged looking at her directly.
He sat on the floor and propped his back against the wall. He stretched out his long legs and crossed them at the ankles.
There almost wasn’t enough room for him.
Lola stared at him through the rising steam. Water still dripped from the faucet.
She was deliciously warm and felt ridiculously safe and she didn’t want to break whatever magic this was.
But she really really wanted to dig deeper into what happened earlier. She was in the thick of it now, whether Thorin liked it or not.
“What happened to you during the fight with Adonis? Why did it seem like you were in pain?”
The events from earlier might have been fuzzy, but seeing Thorin on his knees grimacing was firmly burned into her memory. She’d thought it possible Adonis might just kill Thorin.
In that moment, she considered running across the room and leaping on Adonis’s back and gouging out his eyes.
Anything to save Thorin.
The world wouldn’t be as bright without him.
Thorin laid his head back, chin tilted upward and said, “It’s complicated.”
“Tell me.”
He finally looked at her. “If I tell you the whole of it, you will think less of me.”
“No way, Jose.”
He chuckled. “Oh, I don’t deserve you, Lo.”
“You say that like you have me.” It wasn’t a dig. It was a challenge. Did he get that? Did she get that?
The lines between them were starting to blur.
He’d risked his life for her. And she’d been fully prepared to risk hers for him.
“I’m not as good as you think I am,” he said.
“No one is.”
He sighed. “All right. My entire life, I’ve had this issue with anger. Explosive rage that I can’t control. It’s gotten me into trouble more than once. Back in 1644, with Rose…” His gaze went distant again. “Something happened back then,” he said quickly. “Something so bad that Red had a witch create a weapon to use against me.” He rose to his feet and grabbed the hem of his t-shirt, pulling it off in one fluid motion.
Lola let out a startled gasp. Forget the sight of him shirtless, which was enough to do her in. There was a black medallion embedded in his chest and spreading out from it were what appeared to be tattooed ribbons beneath his skin.
A language Lola didn’t recognize was etched into the medallion’s surface.
“The disc activates when the rage takes over. It cripples me so that I can’t cause damage.”
His family made him wear that thing? Could the rage really be that bad?
“What happened in 1644?”
“That is something I will never share.” His jaw tightened.
“Did Rose do something to you?”
He shook his head. “Someone did something to Rose. I thought I was protecting her. Or rather, the rage thought it was. Once I get like that, I am without reason.”
“I’m so sorry, Thor.”
He sat back down. “Don’t be. I made this bed, as it were.”
“Is that why you don’t do relationships?”
He nodded. “It’s taking on unnecessary risk.”
“How long has it been since you’ve had someone?” She danced her eyebrows suggestively.
“A long time.”
“How long?”
“Since 1644.”
“Holy shit.” She lurched upright. “Thorin! That isn’t healthy either. Pleasure is a release! It would help with the anger. They say sex is a natural anti-depressant. When you orgasm, your brain releases oxytocin which helps wipe out cortisol, the major stress hormone.”
Thorin laughed. “Okay Dr. Lola. I had no idea you were such an expert on sex.”
She leaned into the wall of the tub and propped her splinted arm on the edge. The pain had subsided to a dull ache. “Don’t act surprised. I’m all about the natural remedies.” She winked at him. He blushed.
“Do you…you know…take care of things on your own?”
“Lola St. James!” he shouted, but there was a smile on his face.
“What?”
“Are you asking me if I jack-off?”
“Umm…yes?”
He scrubbed his hands over his face. The stubble on his jaw rasped. “You will be the death of me.”
“I’m just saying, you shouldn’t neglect yourself.”
“Don’t worry, woman. I’m not neglecting myself.”
“So you do jack-off.”
“I’m leaving.”
“No! Don’t go. I’m sorry!” She rose out of the tub to grab him. Her breasts hit the air and her nipples hardened.
Thorin looked down at her. His nostrils flared. His stomach contracted, deepening the shadowed lines between ab muscles. His pants hung lower on his hips revealing the black band of his boxer briefs and the trail of hair that disappeared beneath it.
She grabbed his hand to make him stay.
“Lo,” he said, his voice now husky and deep.
She followed his gaze to her exposed chest. “Oh. I…I’m sorry.” But she didn’t make a move to cover herself. Because was she sorry?
Before Thorin, it’d been easy to stick to her rules—no one before him could compare.
She could picture her life with him. All of her fantasies were clear in her mind.
She wanted to pack a bag and go hiking through Europe with him and discover the magic of the world. She wanted to watch him at the stove scrambling her some eggs. She wanted to curl up with him in bed and talk long into the dark.
And most of all, she wanted to rip the clothes from his body and ride him till he roared with pleasure, until he throbbed inside of her.
Where had that come from?
Maybe she was delirious and broken.
Did she want to risk damaging the good thing they had going?
Their friendship was safe.
And so long as they didn’t cross those lines, everything would remain as it was.
But that wasn’t what she wanted.
She didn’t want things to stay the same.
What had happened with Adonis had shown Lola that she could lose Thorin at any time, for any reason. The world was chaotic and cruel and merciless. But this, what she had with Thorin, was beautiful and brilliant and made her feel so damn good.
Why was she denying herself more?
Why was she punishing herself because of fear?
She was afraid of losing him.
But now, she realized, she was more afraid of something else—regret. Regret at not trying. Of not giving into this warm, buzzy feeling in her heart.
It would be her greatest regret if she died and looked back and asked herself, What if?
She wanted more. So. Much. More.
But would Thorin be willing to give in?
Did he feel the same way about her?
A tremor ran through him as if he could read her thoughts.
An answering thrill sang between her legs electrifying her from the inside out.
Thorin inhaled her sweetness.
God did she want his hands on her.
This was no longer a battle that she wanted to fight.
His hand still clutched in hers, Lola slowly climbed to her feet and bared herself fully to him.
Chapter 28
THORIN
Thorin’s mind went blank.
Lola was fucking gorgeous.
The milky bath water ran down her naked body. Droplets followed the swell of her breasts, the narrow cut of her waist and the curve of her hips and then—
When he took in the sight of her milky wet mound, his cock went rock hard in his pants till it hurt to be clothed.
But he couldn’t do this.
They shouldn’t do this.
He hadn’t been with anyone since Rose. He didn’t know what it’d do to him. All the years between then and now, he’d told himself that love and intimacy only compounded the rage and eventually fed into it.
They were two different emotions, but both equally hungry and all consuming.
If he gave into the hunger he had for Lola, there was no telling where it would lead them.
Water dripped from Lola’s hair and plinked into the tub. She searched his gaze asking him both for permission and action.
Perhaps it was delusion, but since meeting Lola, he’d felt more like himself than he had in a long time.
He felt centered.
Whole.
He wasn’t ready to give it up.
He’d nearly lost her.
And that fear had wiped away the boundaries between them.
He could never go back to looking at her like a friend and only a friend.
Maybe they never had been and he’d just been fooling himself into believing their boundaries were strong and impenetrable.
The truth of it was, he would do anything for Lola.
Anything.
Including risking everything.
She made him feel like a better man and he wanted to cocoon himself in that feeling and forget about his past transgressions.
He wanted to be better for her.
He would be better for her.
“Thor,” Lola said quietly.
He was ready to answer the searching look in her eyes.
Yes.
His skin burned with the need for her.
He closed the inches between them and scooped her up easily.
Lola wrapped her legs around his waist as he pressed her against the wall. She exhaled sharply and he was reminded of her broken body.
“Should I—” he started but she cut him off with her mouth on his.
Their kiss was hungry. Untamed. Their breath frenzied and wild.
Lola threaded her hands through his hair, nails digging at his scalp. A shockwave of pleasure and pain ran down his spine.
He flicked his tongue out exploring her, tasting her—finally—and Lola moaned into him.
He let his hands sink lower to her ass and when his fingertips came to the seam between her thighs and her dripping, wet pussy, her moaning grew needy and high-pitched.
Fuck.
The urge to impale her right now was so bright inside him, he wondered if it might just ignite him from the inside out.
How had he ever kept his distance from her?
How had he not done this weeks ago?
Gods she was so fucking sexy.
She smelled so sweet, so fucking aroused he could practically taste it on the tip of his tongue. And he wanted to taste her more. Lap up her wetness.
Gingerly, he set her to her feet. Lola panted into him. “What are you doing? Why did you stop?”
“Shhhh,” he said. “Let me take care of you.”
She mewled softly.
He trailed away from her mouth.
Body quivering beneath him, he sunk lower and exhaled on her nipple causing it to tighten excitedly beneath his breath. And when he finally took her peak in his mouth and flicked his tongue around it, Lola writhed against the wall, knees trembling.
“Oh God,” she breathed.
Her need for him drove him crazy.
It took everything inside of him not to give into the pulsing ache in his balls. Everything inside of him not to surrender to the heat building in his gut and the animalistic instinct driving him to want to bury his cock deep inside her.
On his knees, he slung one of her legs over his shoulder opening her to him. He ran the pad of his thumb over her swollen clit liking the way it made her body shudder and her breasts bounce.
Gods she was divine.
How had he ever resisted her?
Thumb pressed against her clit, he explored her opening with his tongue. Lola sunk against the wall. He plunged deeper, lapping up her sweetness as her thighs tightened around him.
He was slow and deliberate and gentle. Because if—when—he plunged himself inside of her, he would not be gentle, he would not be slow. He would take his time now and give her all of his attention, every second of it.
As she writhed against his thumb, he sunk two fingers inside her, felt the tightening of her walls around him.
“Ohhhh,” she said. “Fuck. Oh. God Thorin.” He looked up at her through the valley of her breasts, tried to memorize the heaviness to her lids, the pleased O of her plump lips.
He didn’t want to forget what he was able to give her.
She whimpered as he flattened his tongue and ran it lazily over her clit. “If you keep doing that I’m going to come,” she said.
“Do you want to come like this?”
She met his eyes. “Fuck no. I want to come with you inside me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
He flicked at her clit again and she jerked and pushed his mouth away. “I’m serious,” she said with a smile.
He grinned up at her.
With only one good arm, she grabbed him with the other and tried yanking him off his knees. “Up,” she said demandingly.
He rose to his feet. She fumbled at his belt buckle. He pulled her hands away.
He wanted her so fucking badly, but he needed her to know what she was getting into.
“We cannot go back after this,” he said.
“Why would we want to?”
“You don’t know me the way you think you do.”
“No one knows anyone the way they think they do.” She pulled at his belt again.
“I won’t be gentle.”
“Well, thank God for that.”
“I’m serious, Lo.”
“So am I. Do I look like the type of woman who likes gentle lovemaking?” When he didn’t answer, she said, “Well, I’m not. I like it rough and I like it dirty and if you don’t like that about me then—”
He cut her off by pressing his mouth to hers again. Her fingers went still at his belt, the task momentarily forgotten as he probed her mouth with his tongue.
“Are you sure?” he said between breaths.
“Yes dammit.” And then, “Help me,” as she struggled with the belt once more.
He pulled back to look her in the eyes. He could see his own glowing yellow in the reflection of her gaze.
This is the only moment you’ll have. If you want to stop, do it now. Right now.
But he didn’t want to. He couldn’t.
If he died tomorrow, he wanted to die with the smell of Lola still on him, with the memory of her inner walls tensing around him as she came.
Give in.
“Thorin,” she said. She groped him through his pants and his eyes nearly rolled back in his head.
Before he could doubt himself any longer, he undid the belt and withdrew it from his pants in one snapping yank of leather. He undid the button and Lola hurriedly shimmied his clothes off.
His cock, unburdened, bobbe
d between them.
Lola’s eyes widened when she finally looked down. “Well,” she said. “I—God.”
When she finally took hold of him at the base, her hand looked tiny wrapped around him.
He hung his head back as she stroked him slowly, languidly. Pleasure raced through him like a flash flood through a desert canyon. It had nowhere to go but out. Lola ran her thumb over the head of his cock, wiping away the precum. Then she put her thumb to her mouth and sucked it clean.
Fucking hell this woman.
He growled and pressed closer as her lips glistened.
His heart thumped in his chest as his cock throbbed between them.
What would it be to have Lola like this every day? Would he be content finally? Could he be normal, no longer born of the rage?
Maybe Lola could save him.
There was no holding on, no fighting and railing against this pulsing need in his chest.
If he didn’t give into the desire, he worried what he’d do with the pent up hunger.
Give in.
Take her.
Thorin scooped Lola up again. She immediately tangled him in between her legs. His cock slid up her wetness and she arched when the head of his cock grazed her clit.
When he slammed her against the wall, she winced and he was reminded again of her injuries.
He pressed his forehead against hers. “Let me heal you. Make a deal with me and let me take care of you.”
He hoisted her up higher so his cock could finally feel her opening. He wanted to shove inside of her so badly. Hunger rippled through him. But he didn’t want to hurt her more. He wanted her to enjoy it.
“Okay,” she said with not a moment’s hesitation. She sucked in a breath. “I, Lola St. James, wish to invoke the djinn known as Thorin Blackwell and bind him to me for however long it takes for him to fulfill the three wishes owed to me by Law of the Djinn.”
The moment the words were out, the gate on Thorin’s magic swung wide and the heat and the power swept through him. His golden magic crackled on the air and danced along his skin like an electrical current.
The hair rose at the back of his neck.
Lola brought a hand to his face and he leaned into it, eyes closed. How could he be hard and ready to fuck her, yet completely shook by the feel of her hand on his face?
“I am yours to command,” he said and never had he felt those words so completely.
One Mark: Steamy Friends to Lovers Paranormal Romance (Blackwell Djinn) Page 14