Quinn grabbed hold of Alexia’s hips, lifting her, hauling her closer to his chest, and placing her legs high on his shoulders to hang over the top of the sofa. Her hot, moist feminine mound rubbed against the upper portion of his bare chest, branding him, while he lifted his own hips to tug down his jeans. Her female scent surrounded him, becoming entrenched in his skin. It was the scent of a woman in heat. It was the scent of a woman who was ready to mate. It was intoxicating, invigorating, stimulating.
“You smell good,” he whispered as he brushed kisses around her navel, then moved lower, teasing and tasting before his hands gently pulled her back down his body to straddle him again. His erection was hard, poised, ready, between her thighs. Passion tore through the veins of his turgid hard shaft and its tip began to throb, eager to get inside of her and be released from the pulsing torment.
But first he knew what he had to do before he could think about easing into her heated moisture. He had to protect her against an unplanned pregnancy. “Alexia, I need to protect you, baby.”
“No,” she whispered, splashing kisses across his mouth and cheeks. She had gotten so caught up in the way he had made her feel that she had completely forgotten about her plans to get pregnant. She had gotten caught up in fulfilling another kind of need.
“Alexia?” His mouth stilled against her skin. Horizontal lines formed on Quinn’s forehead as he met her gaze. “You’re on some type of birth control?”
Instead of giving him an answer, she leaned down and captured his mouth with hers. She wanted him to forget about protecting her and just concentrate on pleasing her and letting her please him. No man had ever made her body this hot, this needy, this greedy. She thought she would die if he denied her the feel of the fluid heat from his groin shooting deep inside of her, thick, heavy, and mixing with her own juices in an unbridled force that she knew would give her the ultimate in sexual ecstasy.
She wanted all of him and she wanted him now.
She tried lowering herself down on his lap, closer to his aroused erection, but he caught her hips in his hand and held her immobile. She broke off their kiss and met his gaze. His face was damp with perspiration; his breathing was ragged, his eyes glazed with desire.
But still he held back.
Her breath caught in her throat as she wondered if he would deny her the very thing she wanted because she had not answered him regarding birth control. “Quinn?” His name was a choked whisper from her lips.
She felt him touch her intimately. His fingers moved inside her, arousing even more the satiny flesh within and driving her beyond delirium. He stilled his fingers. His eyes locked with hers. “This is mine. Say it.” His voice was deep and husky as he staked his claim to that part of her body.
Alexia, frantic for the pleasure he could give her, chewed on her bottom lip as she held his gaze, knowing there was no way she would say those words. No man dared to make such a claim to any part of her—heart, body, or soul. “No, I can’t,” she whispered. “I won’t.”
A part of her couldn’t believe he would suggest such a thing of her. No man had the right to expect anything from her other than what she wanted to give him. The thought that Quinn believed that he was somehow above any of the others angered her. She didn’t need this. She didn’t need any man that bad.
She lifted her hips to remove herself from his lap, then stopped. He was above any others. Hadn’t she placed him there when she decided that he would be the father of her child? Hadn’t she seen something in him that she hadn’t seen in a lot of other men? Had felt it? Had sensed it?
She sighed deeply. She couldn’t fight the deep longing, the fiery need he aroused within her. Nor could she deny it. What he was making her feel was beyond reason. He had her body burning for him. She closed her eyes to the fierce need escalating in her lower limbs, aching for the hardness of him to be inside of her. But she fought giving in to him and to his demand.
When she reopened her eyes there was a calculated look in them as she held his gaze. She was determined not to let him get the upper hand in this and decided to do something about it, even if it meant not playing fair. Slowly she eased downward, silencing his protests with her lips. When her moist heat grazed the tip of his erection, teasing, enticing, taunting, she held it there, waiting, feeling heat ripple through her as her wet mound hovered over him, hot, ready. She held that position, beckoning him to finish the task and sheath his burning shaft deep into the core of her. She felt the tip of his erection stir, get harder and hotter against the mouth of her womanly core.
But still he held back.
Quinn broke off their kiss. He was testing his will, his strength to endure. He was determined to be just as stubborn as she. “This is mine, Alexia,” he whispered again, with a little more force while guiding himself a little more within her. “Say it!”
She closed her eyes and fought for control as she felt the fierce hardness of him fill her a little more than before. She reopened her eyes. “No!” But even as she said the words, she eased down just a fraction more, and her fingernails sank into his bare shoulders. She fought back the moan that threatened to pour forth from her throat. He was inside her now. Just barely. Not even halfway. All she had to do was inch down just a tad, flex her hips, and make their union complete. She inhaled deeply when she felt her wetness bathe the head of his erection. The air encompassing them began filling with the mounting, hot scent of sex.
The breath Quinn expelled was a shuddering one. He closed his eyes and threw his head back when he felt her slick wetness surrounding him, and felt her fingernails digging deep into his flesh. He fought to retain control of his mind and pride. He didn’t want to take the little of herself she was offering him, which was all she had ever offered any man. She believed she had a divine right to do things her way or no way. Damn it, he wouldn’t let her play around with his heart. He loved her too much, and she could destroy him if he were to let her. He refused to go through all that pain just to be her flavor of the month. Giving in to his pride…and his love, he opened his eyes and saw her watching him. Slowly he placed his hand under her hips to lift her off of him, to bring an end to his torture. To keep his pride he had to walk away, even if doing so killed him.
Seeing his intent and realizing what she was about to lose out on shocked Alexia into awareness, admission, and an acceptance. She did belong to Quinn. She belonged to him in a way she had never belonged to another man. No man had ever made her body feel the way he’d made it feel tonight. There was something about him. Something strong, elemental, that had drawn her to him from the beginning. Deep down she’d known it hadn’t been all lust. And now, at this very moment, she was willing to let him lay claim to that part of her that he possessed already.
Before he could lift her up off of him, Alexia took matters into her own hands and pushed downward and took the full length of him inside of her, making their union complete, joining their bodies to the hilt as one. She tightened her hand on his shoulder to hold her body in place. The shock of what she had done made passion rip through the both of them. Her eyes flew to his, dark, guarded, tormented. Even now he still wanted to fight her. He still wanted to resist. There was nothing calculated in his actions, she suddenly realized. He was a man who possessed a deep sense of pride. Pride that she had tried stripping away from him. Pride he was fighting to hold onto.
“Quinn.” She breathed his name and reached out and framed his face into her hands. She tightened her pelvic muscles to hold him with her body and whispered softly, “This is yours.”
Like a tidal wave, the force of her words, her surrender, engulfed him. He suddenly surged up, and without disengaging their bodies, he flipped her on her back, stretched out on the sofa, and began moving in and out of her body, with long, deep strokes. The dam inside of him had broken and his floodwaters were filling her to satisfaction.
Alexia lifted her legs and wrapped them around his waist. She lifted her body to meet him stroke for stroke, getting caught up in the rhythm
of his thrusts as he went deeper, making her feel she was a part of him and reinforcing the fact that this part of her did belong to him.
She closed her eyes and appreciated the fact that her sofa had good springs and a comfortable cushion, because Quinn wasn’t letting up any. He was making love to her hard, fast, complete, pulling all the way out, then thrusting all the way in again. Every part of her body felt the impact as he claimed her with demanding mastery while relentlessly exploring the depths of her mouth, making love to it as well.
Moments later she broke her mouth free when she felt a tremor move through his body to hers, igniting every nerve within her. “Quinn!”
He lifted her hips to receive more of him, going deeper, feeling stronger, hotter. He met her gaze and before he could demand that she say the words again, she tightened her legs around him, demanding the same of him that he’d demanded of her. “This is mine! Say it!”
He gave her the words without hesitation as he pushed deeper inside of her. “This is yours.”
Alexia wrapped her arms around him as her body accepted his words to be true. An idealistic calm settled over her.
But not for long. Every thrust he made into her body ensnared a piece of her soul.
The pace of Quinn’s lovemaking increased, bursting an inner flame within her. She became swept away into the maelstrom he had created as he continued claiming her, consuming her until there was no way she could take any more. A deep guttural sound erupted from his throat at the same time a powerful climax slammed into the both of them. She felt the hot fiery release from his groin shoot deep into her womb, pouring into all depths of her body.
“Alexia!”
The explosion was powerful. It was earth-shattering. It rocketed them to heights they’d never imagined possible.
He pushed himself farther and farther inside of her, flooding her insides with the very essence of him. Her womb milked him for all it could get as the force of their orgasm propelled them into a world of incoherent passion.
When he had given her all that he could, he whispered her name one last time and wrapped her in his arms. Exhausted. Satisified. Complete.
“Tell me about him.”
Eyes closed, Alexia lay under Quinn in contentment. Her body satiated, still panting and shuddering from what they had just shared. She rubbed her nose against his chest, inhaling his scent and the robust aroma of sex. It took all the strength she could muster to open her eyes and meet his gaze and ask, “Tell you about who?”
“The man who made you so distrustful of others,” Quinn responded softly. “The man who’s to blame for your always being on your guard and not wanting to share a long-term relationship with another man.”
Alexia thought about Quinn’s question for a moment, although the feel of his body still connected to hers made thinking about anything other than making love to him again a challenge. “Richmond Fulton wasn’t anything spectacular,” she tried to say lightly.
Quinn cupped her chin with his fingers when she tried looking away from him. “But you loved him.”
She took a deep breath as she remembered just how much she had loved Richmond and how he had effectively destroyed that love. “Yes, I loved him.”
“Then I want to know about him.”
Alexia studied Quinn’s features and was once again amazed at the extent of just how far he assumed he could go with her. The man was a tad bit arrogant, to say the least. But then she had to inwardly concede that she sort of liked his arrogance. No man had ever really stood up to her before. In the past after making love with a man she would immediately put distance between them, dismissing him from her thoughts as well as her bed and sending him on his way, real quick-like and in a hurry. None had ever given her any flack about it, not that it would have mattered if they had. Quinn, it seemed, came from a different breed of men. With him it was all or nothing. The man was artful when it came to getting what he wanted, but not in a manipulative kind of way. She supposed in his profession as an attorney he had to be sharp, shrewd, and clever. There was no doubt in her mind that she had definitely met her match with him.
Her thoughts drifted back to what he’d said. He wanted to know about Richmond. She had never discussed her marriage with any of her past lovers. But Quinn was asking her to do that very thing. He wanted her to open up to him.
“Why?” she finally asked. “Why do you want to know about my ex-husband?”
“So I can fully understand what I’m up against.”
Alexia shifted and turned her head so she was no longer looking directly into Quinn’s eyes. “You’re not up against anything or anyone.”
“I believe that I am.”
Alexia snatched her gaze back to Quinn’s, more than slightly irritated. How could he think such a thing after what they had just shared? He practically had carte blanche to her body. “I don’t understand why you’d feel that way. He means nothing to me anymore. He—”
“—hurt you, damn it.”
Quinn’s words ripped into her and she buried her face against his chest. She heard the anger in his voice and was overwhelmed at the thought that it was there for her. “Yes, he did hurt me,” she admitted, whispering the words softly against his throat.
Moments passed before either of them spoke again.
“Alexia?”
She kept her face buried. “Yes?”
“I can’t take away the pain he caused, but I can promise not to ever hurt you. Will you trust me on that?”
She raised her head and met his gaze. He was pushing too far, asking too much. “You’re always demanding something of me,” she snapped.
Her words drew a soft chuckle from Quinn’s throat. “Yes, but only because I want what’s best for you.”
“And just what do you think is best for me?”
Quinn’s gaze intensified as he looked at her. “I am,” he whispered hoarsely before leaning down and capturing her mouth, branding it the way he had branded her body, making it his.
His kiss was everything she’d come to expect. It was intoxicating, exhilarating, and by the time he ended it, it had her body quivering in need, in desire.
Quinn pulled himself up and sat back on his haunches, looking down at Alexia. Reaching out, he let his hand drift over each and every part of her naked body that he had touched, had tasted. His eyes were locked on her face, watching her reaction to his touch. “Will you, Alexia? Will you trust me or at least try?”
Alexia was trembling, not only from the feel of his hands on her, but also from the way he was looking at her. There was an intensity in his gaze that almost took her breath away. “Why should I?” she asked, barely breathing out the words.
Quinn inhaled deeply. He could easily explain in just a few words that the reason she should trust him was because he loved her. Deeply, completely. But he knew she wasn’t ready for something as heavy as that just yet. So instead he said words that he knew she could handle and would accept. “I want you to trust me because I want you. There’s a lot of chemistry between us, too much to let go to waste. For the time we’re together I don’t want any misunderstandings between us. I have to know that you believe I won’t deliberately hurt you and that you’re safe with me. I won’t let you put up your guard around me, and you can only let your guard down if you trust me. Will you trust me, Alexia?”
It was a long moment before she answered, “Yes.”
Smiling, he reached out and stroked her cheek with his thumb before leaning down and sealing her mouth with his. Unknowingly she had also sealed their lives together. There was no way he would ever let her go. Like he’d said, he would prove that he would not hurt her, and in the process he would heal her heart of the pain her ex-husband had caused her. In time, she would discover she could love again, and he intended to be the man she loved. He was a patient man, but then he was also a persistent man. Already he had jumped two hurdles tonight in building a relationship with her. She had let him lay claim to her body, and now she’d agreed to let her guard down
and trust him.
He broke off the kiss and gathered her into his arms, hugging her close. “I think it’s time for us to go into the bedroom, don’t you think?”
Alexia took a deep breath, then smiled up at him. “Definitely.”
Chapter 30
Rae’jean chided herself for being nervous as she entered the Heritage Building. She had a one o’clock appointment with a private investigator who she hoped could locate her father.
Now that she’d made the decision to act, she should have been feeling calm, relaxed, less stressed. But the unknown had her tense. Was the man who had fathered her still alive? Would he want to see her? If he had known about her, then why hadn’t he taken the initiative to find her? Locating her would not have been difficult, since he knew where her grandparents lived. She sighed deeply. And knowing that had been the hardest thing for her to swallow. He had not sought her out, which put niggling doubt in her mind that she was doing the right thing spending her money to find him.
She immediately crushed that thought. From the time she’d been old enough to understand that other kids had fathers and she didn’t, she had wondered about him. Who was he? What did he look like? Why couldn’t he be there with her and her mother?
Since her mother, nor any other family member for that matter, hadn’t been willing to provide answers to her childhood inquiries, she’d grown up speculating, curious. Now she hoped, with Ryan Garrison’s help, her speculation and curiosity would come to an end soon.
She had gotten Mr. Garrison’s name out of the phone book. When she checked with Consumer Services it appeared he had an astounding record of success when it came to locating people. He’d been highly recommended. His former clients had only good things to say about his professionalism and his manner of getting the job done. From what she’d heard, he was a man of action. She only hoped he wasn’t backed up with assignments and would be willing to take on her case.
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