Forbidden Valentine: A Forbidden Novel

by J.C. Valentine

  The throbbing ache between her legs intensified as he traced lower, closing in on that central part of her that craved his touch, at the same time her temples pounded and her heart careened in her chest like a bird trying to escape its cage at the implications of what would happen next.

  She bit her lip, torn between telling him to stop and waiting to see where he would go next.

  Tucking a finger beneath the waistband of her panties, he stroked the sensitive skin just above her pubic bone, teasing and tantalizing her senses, turning her into a quivering mess.

  Dani hardly knew what to do with herself.

  “I’ve been thinking about this moment since the morning I woke up to find you in this room wearing my shirt.” The heat in his eyes flared, stealing her breath. “Tonight we’re going to pick up where we left off.”

  His words were both ominous and thrilling. Dani smiled faintly, catching his attention. Concern flattened his expression.

  “What’s wrong? Have you changed your mind?”

  She didn’t know how to answer that. Was she sure she wanted to have sex with him? Yes, absolutely…but maybe not tonight? But her body was all kinds of twisted, yearning for more, feeling as if she’d burst if she didn’t get some kind of relief and soon. How could she deny herself the pleasure she so obviously thirsted for? How could she deny him when he was being so kind and patient and caring? When would she ever find a more perfect moment, one unimpeded by roommates and nosey neighbors and a hundred excuses that leaped up one after another like an internet pop-up window? All things that had occurred whenever she and Mark had come close to doing the deed. At some point, she’d begun to wonder if the universe was trying to warn her, and now she knew that had to be the case, because as soon as she’d told him she wanted to wait, he’d moved on without her.

  Good riddance. She was so grateful she hadn’t slept with him because he didn’t deserve her or the gift of her body. She only regretted having wasted so much of her life on a hopeless cause. Which was what landed her in a bar on Halloween night in search of someone to help her banish those unwanted memories and affirm that she was worth something.

  Then she’d found Ransom, and he’d been more than she ever could have anticipated. He made her revisit that time, compare and contrast, and she couldn’t come up with a single excuse not to be with him in the most carnal way two people could be together. Yes, he was broken. Yes, he came with baggage. But didn’t everyone? The man she saw hiding behind those fathomless dark eyes was more genuine, more spiritual, more honest, more manly, and more worthy than any man she’d ever come across.

  If anyone was worthy of sharing her bed—or his, as it was—it was Ransom Scott.

  “Will we…” She glanced away, regrouping, before meeting his gaze once more. “Will we still be friends…after?”

  Falling down over top of her, Ransom’s hand fit between them, between her breasts, to cover her pounding heart. With tenderness in his eyes, he said, “You’re the most interesting, gentle, truly nice person I’ve ever met, Dani. I can pretty much guarantee that no matter what happens, I will always be your friend.”

  It was hard to disguise true sincerity, and Ransom’s voice rang true with it, easing Dani’s worries and settling her mind. Slowly, her body caught up and began to relax, each muscle softening until all the fine tremors had been worked out completely.

  Holding his steady gaze, she whispered, “Okay, let’s do it then.”

  And his body rolled with laughter, shaking his shoulders and revealing all of his perfectly even, white teeth.

  Puzzled by his reaction, Dani frowned, but Ransom just kissed it away. “You are an enigma, but I have a feeling I’m going to have fun trying to figure you out.”

  “Then you should start now, while the evening’s still young.” While she still had some shred of courage left in her.

  His brow crooked up at the challenge. “Any particular place you want me to start?” His hand shifted between them, covering her breast. “Here perhaps? Or here?” he asked, sliding south over her hip and between her legs, pressing against her cleft.

  The shiver that tracked through her was from pleasure this time.

  Threading her fingers through his thick, black hair, she pulled his head down instead of pushing him away. “Here,” she murmured, then lifted her head to glide her tongue inside his mouth, stealing a single, perfect kiss.

  His moan of approval gave her incentive to deepen the kiss, to savor it. She had a lot of practice making out, and was glad for it now. Every little sound he uttered emboldened her to press further, to risk more.

  Needing to feel more of his hot flesh against her, she began shoving at his pants, working them down his thighs. Due to her confining position and subsequent limited mobility, she wasn’t able to make much progress, but Ransom picked up where she left off, shucking the stiff material off and casting it to the floor.

  Dani didn’t dare look down. She could feel the hard, long, thick part of him pressed against her most sensitive part. As if it spoke to her core, she felt her body quicken and flood with moisture in response.

  “Feel what you do to me.” Ransom took her hand and pushed it between them, wrapping her fingers around his penis and squeezing. “I ache for you, Dani. Just the feel of your hand on me makes me want to come all over you.”

  Oh my God. Searing heat licked at every inch of her skin, making her blood pulse in her veins. She allowed him to guide her, pumping his shaft as he made sounds that only added fuel to her fire. As they stroked him together, she marveled at how something so hard could be so soft and smooth, like velvet in her palm.

  And she was surprised to realize that she wanted more.

  Restless energy threatened to consume her, and like any good lover, Ransom picked up on it right away.

  Releasing her hand, he set to work divesting her of her undergarments. Once he had her bare, he sat back on his heels and looked his fill.

  It took everything Dani had in her not to cover herself, so exposed she felt under his intent stare.

  “I knew you were beautiful…” Ransom shook his head, and when he continued his thought, his tone was nothing short of reverent. “I’ve never seen a woman more perfect. You’re ravishing.”

  “You speak like a poet,” Dani remarked, her fingers twitching with the need to hide. She’d never been on full display for anyone. The way Ransom viewed her was wonderfully intimidating.

  “I spend my life talking about art, so when I find myself starting down at a living representation of it, how can I help but wax poetic?”

  Oh hell, if he had started with that line, she would have skipped the pleasantries and ripped her own clothes off then thrown herself at his feet. Could he possibly be any more perfect?

  “I need you to kiss me right now,” she confessed, her voice wobbly.

  “It will be my pleasure.” Covering her with his body, Ransom took her mouth the way she imagined he would take her body: slow and languishing.

  With no clothing left between them, there was nothing to keep his body from hers. Nothing to preserve her modesty…or her innocence.

  As Ransom continued to lavish her with affection, Dani agonized over when and if to tell him her secret. The one she’d hidden from even her closest friends and had held close throughout every relationship to be sure she gave it away at the right time and to the right person.

  Without breaking their connection, Ransom reached for the night table, pulling open the top drawer and retrieving a handful of condoms. Dani gulped as she watched him ready himself for her, tearing open the foil wrapper and reaching between them to roll it on.

  Panicked inducing thoughts began to set in. Would he see her differently? Would he still want her if he knew? But even if she didn’t say the words, there was no way to keep him from finding out. So she had to come out with it before it was too late. Right?

  The thick tip prodded her entrance, gliding through her slick heat and circling, dancing, pushing, and retreating. The pain of
needing him so badly warred with her fear of never having ventured so far before, and in a brief moment of clarity Dani knew that it was exactly why the moment was right.

  Such passion couldn’t be denied, and shouldn’t. Life was made for those wondrous and memorable first times, and this was exactly the kind she wanted to look back at and remember fondly. The kind she couldn’t possibly ever regret.

  “Ransom,” she said, a plea in her voice. She had to tell him before things went any further. He had a right to decide if she was what he truly wanted for himself, just as she had decided he was what she wanted for her.

  “Mmm,” he hummed into the side of her neck as he swirled his tongue over her raging pulse.

  “Before we do this, there’s something you should know.”

  That gave him pause. Lifting his head, his penis poised to enter her, he gave her a pensive look. “You’re not a man are you?”

  Teasing her? At a time like this? A broad smile cracked across her face. This was exactly why she had to have him, if only to preserve her memory of having someone so utterly amazing to share such a momentous occasion with.

  “No, I’m one hundred percent woman,” she assured him. Her smile faltered as she wrestled with her nerves. With a heavy breath, she decided to just spit it out. “I’m a virgin.”

  “A virgin,” he questioned, doubt kitting his brows together.

  “Yes.” She searched his eyes, looking for any sign that her confession changed anything. But he was as unreadable as a government contract.

  His mouth opened, shut. Opened again. His gaze straying, then returning. “How is that possible? You’re so…”

  “I’ve just never found the right person,” she offered, hoping to ease his obvious discomfort.

  “But your boyfriend…”

  “There’s a reason he’s my ex.”

  “Did he dump you because you wouldn’t sleep with him?”

  His outrage, at least, gave her some reassurance. “I broke up with him,” she corrected him, feeling the need to set the record straight, “but only after finding out that he’d cheated on me, which I’ve already told you about, so…” she trailed off, feeling like a fool every time she revisited that moment in time.

  “What an asshole. I’m not the best guy, but I would never do that to you.”

  “I know.” Because Ransom had more integrity in his little finger than Mark had in his entire body.

  “But I don’t think I’m the right man for this either, Dani,” he said, pulling away. Sitting back on his heels, her spread out like a sacrificial lamb before him, Ransom raked his hands through his hair, a tortured look on his face. “What you’re offering me is a gift, and you should save it for someone worthy of having it.”

  “I am,” she assured him, sitting up to close the distance.

  “I’m not the man for you,” he argued, sadness darkening his eyes. He moved to climb off the bed, but Dani snagged his arm to prevent him from running.

  “You may not think much of yourself, Ransom Scott, but I do. You’re worth so much more than you give yourself credit for.”

  “I’m an alcoholic.”

  “Maybe, maybe not.” Ever since their agreement was made, she hadn’t witnessed him consume a single drop of alcohol, and neither had she seen him struggle in its absence. She was beginning to wonder if it was more of a crutch than an actual problem. But he needed convincing before he could believe it himself. “The point is, I see who you really are. You care deeply about the people in your life, even when you’re estranged. You love deep too, even when it’s not returned. You’re a man who is loyal, and I’d venture to say it’s often to a fault, but all of that is why I am so attracted to you. And the way you see me…I have no words. But I like the way I feel when I’m with you. That’s why I know that, of anyone who’s passed through my life, you’re the one I want to share myself with. You’re the only one who’s worthy of having me.”

  His entire body sagged back on his heels, and all Ransom could do was stare back at her in abject silence. She could no more tell what kind of thoughts were running through his head than she could predict the weather, but Dani held out hope that he would feel the truth in her words and see that she was right. He was worth everything to her, more than was probably safe, but she couldn’t prevent herself from feeling how she did.

  “No one has ever said anything like that to me before.”

  “Then you’ve been with the wrong women,” she said, repeating his words back to him.

  “You sure about his? About me?”

  Extending her hand, she cupped his jaw and guided him closer so there was nowhere left to look but into each other’s eyes. “I have never been more certain of anything in my life. Make love to me, Ransom. Teach me everything.”

  Fire blazed to life behind those dark orbs an instant before his lids dropped and his big body shuddered. Planting his fists into the mattress beside her hips, he prowled forward, forcing her to lie back until he was, once again, looming above of her.

  “You want me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then show me. Take me in your hand and put me inside of you so neither of us ever forget who asked for this.”

  Dani’s hand trembled as she did as he told her. Taking hold of him, she practiced stroking it just like he’d shown her, and he rewarded her. Grasping her jaw, he tilted her face up to his and took her mouth in a forceful kiss that caused a fresh rush of heat to flood south, saturating her lips and inner thighs.

  “My cock wants in you,” Ransom growled, voice tight. “Show him where to go.”

  God, did she ever want to, but her lack of experience was holding her up. What would it feel like? Would she enjoy it? “I…can’t.”

  The sound of her small voice didn’t deter him. Instead, Ransom joined their hands once again, helping her place him at her sopping entrance. He showed her what he wanted, smoothing the thick, bulbous head through her creamy folds, circling her clit and drawing out approving gasps from both of them. Dani was a mass of sensation aching to be pleased by the time he fit himself against her opening.

  “You’re so ready for me, baby. So wet and plump. You’ve got me so hard I’m going to have to work not to come as soon as I get inside you.”

  His words made her so hot, she felt ready to combust.

  “You ready?” he asked as he leaned down to take her breast in his hand and suck her nipple into his mouth. His hips rocked forward, the head breaching her entrance, and the foreign sensation coupled with her muscles stretching to accommodate him was overwhelming.

  But she wasn’t about to turn back now. Not when everything in the world seemed to hinge on the precipice of this very moment.

  With his engorged shaft still cradled in her palm and his hand still wrapped around hers to guide him, she met his gaze. Her voice sturdy, she said, “Make me yours.”

  TEN

  “MAKE ME YOURS.”

  Ransom couldn’t stop hearing her soft plea as he edged his way inside her body. She was impossibly tight, hot, and wet. Perfect. He’d never felt anything like the snug embrace that Dani provided him. If this was what heaven felt like, then Ransom could die a happy man.

  She was giving him something that she could never get back: her innocence. It was astonishing to him that anyone would waste such a prize, but it floored him that she thought enough of him to spend it on him.

  His heart thudded almost painfully inside his chest as he watched her lie there beneath him, her body his to take, his to enjoy, to tease and pleasure and…love.

  Her soft mewl was a cross between pleasure and pain. Bringing her legs up higher around his hips, he regretted that he had to be the one to hurt her, but he was selfish enough to keep going. She wanted him and he wanted her, and this was the price they had to pay to be together. Stomach dropping as she clenched around him, her hands gripping tight to his back, Ransom framed her head in his hands and pressed his lips to hers as he pushed the rest of the way inside.

  Once he was
fully seated, he waited, holding himself still to allow her time to get used to the feel of him. He wasn’t being arrogant, but he knew he wasn’t a small man, nor was he the gentlest. But he was trying. He couldn’t even imagine what it must be like for a petite woman like Dani to be impaled by something so hard and unforgiving, but given some time, she’d come to enjoy it.

  He’d make damn sure of it.

  Her body shook with fine tremors, a light sheen of sweat dotting her brow. Settling his forehead against hers, Ransom kissed the tip of her cute, upturned nose. “Okay?”

  After a moment, her hand skated along his ribcage, coming to rest on his shoulder blade. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.”

  Relief flooded him, and Ransom began to move, keeping his pace slow at first while he studied her face, watching for any signs of discomfort.

  But she only met his gaze head on, holding her bottom lip between her teeth as her back arched and her hips rose to meet his increasing thrusts. Her sweet, delicate moans spurred him to go faster, dig deeper. Before he knew it, Ransom was pounding into her with abandon, craving every throaty sound she had to offer.

  And she gave them willingly, freely.

  Her body bounced and jiggled in all the right places as he took her hard and fast, and Ransom couldn’t resist leaning down to capture the creamy swell of her breast in his mouth and sucking the tiny rosebud nipple with the same ferocity he fucked her with.

  She shouted as her pussy clamped down, milking his cock with each pulse of her orgasm. Releasing her breast, Ransom rose up on his hands and didn’t bother hiding his satisfied grin as he watched the remnants of her orgasm fade.

  Dani was a delicate beauty, her heavy lidded eyes still molten, her body liquid fire as he took what she had left to give. He sunk down into her, pulling more saccharine noises from her bow-shaped lips, before feeling the familiar tingle take root in the base of his spine.