Stripped- For The Very First Time

by Penn Rivers

  “Thank you,” she breathed.

  Not another thank-you. Like she owed me for the things I did. No.

  “For… for getting me through that. For being there. Thank yo—”

  I snapped.

  I couldn’t take another prim word from her mouth.

  “Don’t thank me for that. Don’t make it so cold. I saw the look in your eyes, Gem. I saw what that did for you… the evidence glistening on your panties.” I crowded her, my body ignoring the warning my brain was giving it. But she didn’t back away. “If I touched you right now, you’d be soaked between your legs. Because dancing like that for me turned you on, didn’t it?”

  She swallowed hard and my eyes were drawn to her narrow throat as it bobbed.

  “Didn’t it, Gem?”

  “I… I… couldn’t have gotten through that dance without you.” Her eyes were big, and looking more lost than I’d ever seen them. Like she was barely holding on. Like if she admitted it, she’d go barreling down a road she wasn’t ready to take.

  But I wasn’t letting her deny it. Not after what we’d just shared.

  “Tell me,” I demanded, my mouth close enough to hers we could almost brush out a kiss.

  But if I kissed her right now, it wouldn’t be gentle. It would be a marking.

  Her breath came in short pants. There was no more doubting that she was affected by me. She was.

  I just needed to hear her say it.

  “Yes.” Her admission was barely more than a breath, but I felt it vibrate my bones. Felt it in my groin, making my still hard cock throb even more.

  I inched closer. She was like a magnet pulling me.

  “Feel me,” I grated close to her ear.

  Her stilted breath hitched at the demand. Oh, my girl was so revved up. If I wanted, I could probably make her come with one touch. My mind went through the scenarios… but this wasn’t the place. Was it?

  Slowly, hesitantly, her hand slid to my waist. Down my hip. To the front, where my cock threatened to rip my pants. She pressed her palm into the bulge and instinct had me thrusting against her hand.

  Once.

  Before I wrangled my control back.

  Gemma gasped, the sound sweet music to my ears. Fuck.

  “You’re… Kane…”

  “Hard, Gem.” I could barely breathe through the words. “That doesn’t happen to me. Not for anyone else. You understand? Just you. It’s why I never watch you dance. Didn’t seem right, until tonight.”

  There. A confession of my own. It was only fair.

  “Kane.”

  Her voice had changed. It wasn’t distant and prim anymore. It was helpless. Like she was about to lose her grip on her own control. I wanted to see what that would look like.

  “Gemma.”

  I’d barely gotten her name past my lips when her mouth crashed into mine, her tongue darting in and giving me a sip of her sweetness. She tasted like hot, hot woman and faint peppermint mixed with honey. Sweet dreams and heartbreak. I wanted to drink every ounce of her. Let her ruin me for any others, and do the same for her.

  Fucking hell.

  Gemma licked and sucked, her fingers clawing desperately at my hair like she was trying to crawl into me.

  Oh, fuck yes.

  With a growl, my hand flew to her hair, curling in to keep her close as I backed her against the wall. I was going to have every inch of that mouth. Every goddamn inch of it. Maybe her body too. Right here in the fucking club. Just lose myself to her in a furious fit of lust until we were both sated and blissfully out of breath.

  Virgin status be damned. I’d lose it in a place like this, with her, and have zero regrets.

  She moaned, and I took advantage of it to trade places with her tongue, thrusting it in time with the thrust of my hips. Her legs opened, one curling around mine, and my hand went under the fringe to find her bare ass, squeezing to press her even closer.

  Lost in the way her mouth sucked at mine, I didn’t realize how far my fingers had roamed until I touched her warm wetness where it gathered at the opening between her thighs.

  Gemma drew in a hard gasp, tossing her head back to break our kiss. Her wide eyes met mine and she froze. Her breath, her body. Everything.

  And my brain shorted the fuck out.

  Her honey on my hand.

  Her body in my arms.

  Her eyes so vulnerable.

  It was enough to have my dick pounding against the front of my pants, past the point of no return.

  “Gem,” I rasped. “What do you want me to do? Tell me or I’m going to do what I want.”

  “Keep. Touching.” The words were huffed on two short breaths, letting me know how close she was to coming.

  Fuck. My girl was going to come on my fingers.

  I watched her face as I slowly slid between her slick folds, spreading that sweet wetness everywhere, focusing on the hard nub of her clit. Circling, circling. Each sweep making her gasp with new pleasure.

  “Kane. Please.”

  “Baby,” I grit out. “I got you.”

  On a sharp intake of breath she said, “Tell me again.”

  “Got you, Gemma. Always got you. I’m right here. Always.”

  If it sounded like a promise, that was because it was. I’d been there before she ever noticed. And I was sticking around, even if she wanted to push me away.

  I was so fucking hers.

  “Kaaane.” Her helpless moan made my heart swell so big I thought my chest would bust open.

  “I got you. Come on me, Gem. Let me have it.” I circled her clit faster, pressing in harder, needing her to fall apart on me so I could hold her together. I needed that like my next fucking breath. More necessary than a heartbeat.

  “Kane, I don’t… I…”

  Whatever she was about to say was cut off when her entire body went tense with her orgasm. She quivered and twitched in my arms, her hips circling seductively against my touch, her body moving to wring the most out of this pleasure while I kept steady.

  God, she was beautiful coming. Her eyes went hooded as she stared at me. Her teeth clamped deliciously on her full lower lip. Her throat vibrated with a guttural moan.

  Wanna see more of this. Need to see so much fucking more of this with her. Make her do this again, come for me.

  She went limp against me, her head falling forward onto my shoulder so I couldn’t see her eyes anymore. I softened my touch, easing her down from that high, before pulling my hand away and bringing my finger to my mouth. Slowly, I sucked every bit of her honey from it, relishing my first taste of her.

  Sweet. Jesus.

  This was mine. I’d done this.

  I closed my eyes at her flavor, clenching my jaw to keep control. Would she let me lick her right now? I wanted to bury my face in her pussy and only come up for air when I passed out. Lick and suck that thing to another orgasm. Have her coming hard on my tongue.

  Would she let me do that?

  “Kane.”

  I found her watching me from where her head rested on my shoulder. There was a hint of uncertainty in her eyes. I wanted to annihilate that shit.

  “This is mine, Gemma.” My voice came out rough and garbled. Almost unrecognizable. And I licked again at her sweet taste on my fingers. Wasn’t wasting a drop. “I caused this.” I kissed the corner of her mouth, whispering, “mine,” to remind her.

  Something flashed in her gaze. Some remnant of what her eyes looked like before they’d opened to me completely. Before I’d made her feel good. Before the dance.

  She let out a long sigh. It had the saddest fucking ring to it. And she eased away from me, standing on her own two feet now.

  She looked uncomfortable as she went to straightening her skimpy clothes.

  Shit.

  Seeing her like that had me coming down from the lust like I’d free-dived off the fucking Empire State Building.

  “What’s wrong, Gemma?”

  “Nothing,” she said, her voice too flippant, not matching her f
ace. “I just… Kane, I don’t do this. I… I’m not… I don’t do this.”

  Oh.

  It hit me hard, as I could finally see clearly enough to recognize that look on her face.

  Regret.

  She regretted what just happened between us. She regretted what I’d just so proudly made her do. The fucking beautiful thing we had. It was so little, but so huge to me. And she… she fucking regretted it.

  She felt the shame I always tried to be free of when it came to pleasure. But she felt it with me.

  The realization choked me to silence.

  Fuck.

  “I don’t want you thinking… that I’m…” Her words petered out, but they might as well have been nothing, because I couldn’t translate them past the roaring in my ears. “Kane? Please, I just… I’m confused about this. Kane?”

  I twisted away, running my fingers through my hair. I couldn’t look at her like that. I wanted to remember the dreamy way she looked when she was coming. I’d done that. She wasn’t allowed to feel sorry about it.

  No. Fucking. Way.

  I let out my breath slowly, letting all the pain in my chest out with it.

  “Go back to work.” I barely heard my own words, but she must’ve because she headed for the door, stopping with her palm on the handle. “Go, Gem.”

  Seconds ticked by and neither of us moved.

  Finally she said, “No. I need to know something first.”

  “What?”

  “Did you mean what you said? That no other girl does that for you. Just me?”

  Shit. I’d said that, hadn’t I? Given that away so easily.

  But I couldn’t lie to her so I nodded.

  “Did you mean the rest too? That you’ve always got me?”

  I gulped at the knot in my throat. I’d given her too much. Why was she asking for more?

  “I meant everything, Gemma. And I think you know that.”

  She stepped away from the door.

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t know that. I don’t know anything except I really don’t want you thinking I do this with other men, okay? That’s what I wanted to say. That it’s the same for me. There’s only you. No man has touched me like that… in a really long time.”

  I watched her, the way her breath moved fast in and out of her chest.

  There’s only you.

  Shit, those words did something to me.

  “What are you saying?”

  She eased forward some more. Hesitant even after what I’d just done to her.

  “I’m saying I haven’t done anything like this since Noah’s dad.” Her eyes were wide, and I wondered what was being worked out in that pretty, pretty head. “I’m saying I need to think. Because… because… I really like the way you make me feel. And I don’t know if I should like it.”

  “I want you to. I want you to like everything I do to you.”

  Another inch closer.

  “I don’t know where this is going.”

  Another confession revealed.

  “It’s going wherever we take it. Could be nowhere, could be the end of the fucking rainbow. It’s up to you.”

  Another tiny step.

  “I don’t know if you want in on this mess.”

  Another battle with uncertainty.

  “I want every single bit of that mess. All of it.”

  Her gaze skittered away. “My life is complicated.”

  I closed the rest of the distance, pressing up against her body and taking her chin in my hand. Tipping her face up, I carefully kissed her lips. Soft this time. A quiet promise.

  “You say it’s complicated,” I whispered. “I say, I like the challenge.”

  Gemma swallowed hard. Maybe holding back tears, I couldn’t tell for sure. But her fingers dug into my biceps like she needed them for an anchor.

  A heavy palm slapping the door had us jerking apart.

  “Boss? You in there?” It was Jake. “Penelope asked me to check on Gemma.”

  “Gembo! You back there? I saw an asshole stomp outta here a few minutes ago.”

  “Penelope, damn it. I told you I’d check,” Jake’s voice was quieter through the door, and tinged with annoyance.

  “And I told you, I was coming with. You never send a boy to do a woman’s job.”

  “Boy. Seriously?”

  “Look, until I’ve seen your goods, I won’t know if your balls have dropped. Ergo, I don’t know if you’re boy or man. Ain’t my fault.”

  “Trust me. They’re nice and big. Fucking wrecking balls down there, okay?”

  “Reeeeeeally,” Penelope answered, her voice turning squeaky with interest. “Lemme see, lemme seeeee.”

  “No. Stay away from my nuts, woman.”

  Gemma barked out a laugh, her head shaking as she pinched the bridge of her nose. I dropped a kiss to the top of her head. One to last until the night was over. And reached for the door.

  I yanked it open to find Jake and Penelope facing off in the hallway, both seeming to have forgotten about why they’d knocked on the Champagne door in the first place.

  “Oh. Hey, Gembo. Everything all right in there?”

  “Yeah. Just finishing up. That guy was a thumbs-down.”

  Penelope made a face. “Damn. Sorry, hun. But at least you didn’t have someone tell you your nipples looked chewy.”

  Gemma made a face. So did Jake.

  “Who would say that shit?” he asked.

  Penelope pointed to the main stage where the lights were flashing and music was pounding and Deborah was in nothing but a gold thong and stilettos. “The guy right up against the rope. One with the hat.”

  “Huh.” Jake looked perplexed.

  Penelope shrugged. “Not the worst I’ve heard. One time a man told me he wanted to use my clit like a pencil eraser and rub it on everything he could find. I could tell he’d brought his best line that day.”

  Gemma frowned. “Gross.”

  Penelope nodded. “Agreed. Okay, you’re due on stage in twenty. Marcie said your ass better be ready. Her words, not mine.”

  “Got it.”

  Gemma shot me a glance before heading for the dressing rooms, but I didn’t have long to watch her because my attention was pulled to a couple of half-drunk co-eds. Their trash-talking was about to turn into a fist exchange. And once it got going, others would join in to cause a whole mess of shit to clean up.

  Jake got to them first, stepping in between the two burley guys.

  “We got a problem here?” I barked when I caught up. It was enough to get their attention.

  For a moment, the two seemed to consider taking things further, but then Deborah dropped her panties, and it distracted them enough they decided to let it go.

  “Naw. No problem here,” one of them muttered as his eyes went lust glazed.

  The rest of the night went off without a hitch. I skipped Gemma’s dance, knowing good and well I couldn’t make it through another go with her. My balls were already so blue I could pass for a fucking Smurf. But the pain made me smile. It wasn’t that I was a sick bastard. It was because it was a reminder of what we’d done in the Champagne room, and fucking hell, I never wanted to forget.

  Hours later, I walked back to the club from the parking lot, my mood better than it had been in a long time. It was closing time and that meant walking Gemma to her car. Most of the girls were already gone and security was doing checks around the building.

  But when I got to the front, I noticed her car was missing from the spot where Moosey had left it.

  Inside, I found Jake.

  “Where’s Gemma?”

  “Already gone,” he answered distracted. “I walked her out a few minutes early.”

  I nodded, wrangling in my disappointment so it didn’t show in my expression. “All right. Let’s get this place ready for close.”

  “On it, boss.”

  Damn it.

  She’d left without finding me. Running again. It seemed like she was always runnin
g away. It had to mean something. More regrets maybe. Or just more uncertainty. Either way, it left me feeling raw.

  I dragged my fingers through my hair and blew out a breath. One day at a time. That’s how I would prove to her this could work. That we were both a mess, and deserved each other. Deserved to be happy. That’s how I would prove she didn’t need to run anymore. And how I would overcome my guilt.

  I leaned against the doorjamb, staring at the spot where her car had been.

  Yeah. One day at a time with my girl. That’s the only way it would work.

  Good thing I was a patient fucking man.

  I glanced down at my waist. At my virgin dick that had been throbbing for hours.

  Yep. I was a very patient man.

  Chapter Ten

  GEMMA

  I’d left without a word. Just like I had when I left Rafe. Except this time, I wasn’t going for good. I was just going home.

  Kane would be upset, but I needed time to think.

  I cranked the music to blasting while I guided Charley through side streets, taking ramps onto the freeway only to exit two miles later, twisting and looping around the city until I felt good and lost. If anyone made a map of my path, it would look like a child’s drawing of a tumbleweed.

  I wasn’t lost though. I’d done this enough times to know exactly where I was.

  The only place I felt lost was inside. In my heart. And after tonight, I felt more lost than ever.

  Good things didn’t happen for me. And Kane felt like a good thing. But I’d trusted wrong before, and it had cost me. No matter what, I couldn’t make that mistake again.

  But… it was Kane. Kane was safe.

  Trust him and expose him to my secrets, my hurricane, the natural disaster that was my reality, or not? My head couldn’t settle on one side, even though my heart had already made a decision.

  My heart. The thing wasn’t the best at knowing what was good for me.

  I cut down a small alley way, turning right when it led me to a busy road. Almost home. The sun hadn’t peeked over the cityscape quite yet. I liked the cover of darkness. Come summertime, when it got light earlier, it wouldn’t be so easy to sneak home without being seen. Luckily, we lived in one of those cheap rundown places where the neighbors didn’t like to talk. So I’d never made acquaintances with any of them.