Cherished

by Lauren Dane

  He pulled her to him and she went, sucking in a breath when they touched and all she could see or feel was him. Greed rose up from her gut. Greed to have him and not share. To be the only one in this part of his life.

  “I’m wildly flattered.”

  “Part of your allure is how talented you are. Part of my reasoning was purely business, I can’t lie. You’re going to have a healthy career ahead of you. Snapping up a piece I love is wonderful. Snapping up a piece I love that will be worth ten to fifteen times more than what I pay for it now makes it even better.”

  She drew a shuddering breath as he dipped his head to breathe in at the place where her neck met her shoulder. His teeth abraded the tender skin there.

  One of his hands slid down her back to her ass and squeezed, hauling her closer and then spinning her, backing her against the doorway. The breath left her as her adrenaline spiked and then she found that place where everything went soft and slow, so torturously good that she’d begun to recall these moments with him when she masturbated. This was better than any fantasy or remembrance, though. This intense swell of energy and chemistry between them swept her away and she held on, letting him take over.

  Every place he touched as he kissed her, her back pressed to the cool wood at her back, seemed to make her skin come alive. Sensation pulsed through her as he opened her shirt and popped the catch on her bra in mere moments.

  Nearly rough at first, as if he couldn’t stop himself from rushing to touch her, his fingers first made featherlight touches of her nipples. Slowly, he drew her deeper, the heat of him dizzying, the little flicks of pleasure as his touch grew bolder, the light touches turning into tugs of her nipples until her breath caught.

  Her knees went weak as she held on, as he dropped to his own, kneeling before her.

  He shoved her skirt up and hummed in pleasure when he saw her panties. He liked the sheer ones so those had been what she chose. She slid her fingers through his hair as he kissed the tops of her thighs, above the stockings she wore. His perfectly manicured beard had gone scruffy and he looked entirely disreputable. Like a pirate in a suit.

  The beard tickled her skin as he rolled the top of the left stocking down, kissing all the skin he bared.

  This big, elegant male with the big, broad shoulders knelt at her feet and kissed her tenderly and she had to close her eyes a moment as he snagged the sides of her panties and drew them down her legs.

  He nibbled his way back up her thighs, his palms skimming her skin and then he twisted his wrists and slid her open with his thumbs, baring her clit to his gaze.

  “You have the loveliest pussy.” He took a lick, swirling his tongue around her clit.

  He gripped her upper thighs and held her still as he nuzzled her clit gently with his lips. And then his tongue lapped, licked, flicked, drove her to the edge and backed off. Each time he drove her up again, the pleasure grew sharper. His grip on her hips tightened, pressing her back and tipping her as he flattened his tongue against her clit over and over until she splintered apart, her fingers tangled in his hair as he continued past the point where the first orgasm had ended and into a second one, so hard she had to let go of his hair and grab his shoulders to keep standing.

  He kissed the inside of each thigh, pulled up her stockings and stood, tucking her panties into his pocket. Two steps back and he’d grabbed her overnight bag and was standing at her side again like he hadn’t just blown her in his front entry against a doorway.

  “Now, hello. Come and have a drink with me and tell me what you’ve been up to over the last ten days.” He tucked her arm in his and walked her upstairs.

  “I can sadly confess I’ve not had any such fine welcomes at all during the last ten days.”

  His bedroom had an outer sitting room that she’d quickly decided was her favorite place in his house. The view was incredible, the big trees to one side, the water to the other. There was a fireplace and a bar, an overstuffed couch, a television and good speakers from the house system.

  “I love this room.” She let go of his arm and moved to make him a drink. “Laphroaig?” She removed her shirt and bra before she went to the bar.

  He’d already changed his clothes and so he settled on the couch and watched her, pleased that she’d taken her shirt off, baring her breasts to his gaze like he preferred. “Yes, thank you.”

  She brought it over and placed it at his right hand and dropped to the floor with a happy sigh, sipping from her glass as she looked at the fire. Her head rested against his knee, his fingers automatically seeking the softness of her hair.

  They’d spoken on the phone and had texted quite a bit over the last week and a half, but it hadn’t been as good as touching her, having the weight of her leaning against him.

  “I was about to tell you that I was not the only bidder on your piece. In fact, there was even a bidding war between me and two other people. I did of course win gracefully.”

  She laughed. “I’m sure.”

  “I gave them both your information and card.”

  “Thank you. Truly.”

  “It was my pleasure.” And it had been. Even without this other thing between them, he’d have been promoting her work to the other collectors he knew. “What else did you do?”

  “I quit three jobs and got one more.” She told him about her job with Mary and the idea she’d had to combine Jules’s and Mary’s businesses in the same place.

  “You’ve got a great mind for business on top of a great amount of artistic talent. You look better than ninety-nine percent of the population both clothed and naked. Really I’ve yet to see something you’re not good at.”

  She scrambled around to kneel between his legs. “So says the man who is perfect at everything.”

  “Not everything.”

  “Oh yes? What is that then?”

  He paused, on the verge of sharing. Instead, he put his tumbler down and took hold of the end of each of her braids and pulled her close to kiss those lips.

  She allowed it, but they both knew he was ducking the subject.

  “What was your favorite part of the week?” he asked as he broke the kiss.

  “Other than this part?” She smiled. “Arch, the red piece with the woman you said you wanted?”

  He nodded, hoping like hell she hadn’t sold it because he’d meant every word when he said he wanted to buy it.

  “I told you I had other plans. I entered it into the art walk selection process and they called me today. A few hours ago actually. They chose me.”

  He stood and swept her up into his embrace, genuinely pleased for her. “Wonderful news. This calls for a celebration.”

  “This is a celebration, silly.” She smiled, her face tipped up to his, her arms around his shoulders.

  It was a simple thing. Affectionate. Given without any expectation of a return. It felled him. It made him happy. It had been a long time. Probably since the earliest of days with Kelsey when what they’d had was still good. Before he’d finally opened his eyes and everything had fallen apart. Too long to have gone without a woman making him feel this way.

  “I like you in my life.”

  Her smile widened and she kissed him. “I like it too.”

  Cupping her cheeks in his hands, he kissed her. “On your knees.” After he got rid of his jeans, he dropped a pillow there and she tucked it beneath her knees. He brushed his cock against her lips and she opened immediately, licking around the head and crown, keeping him very wet.

  He took a braid in each hand and pulled her forward on his cock that way. She rewarded him with a low moan, the kind she made when he did something that made her hot.

  “Unless I say otherwise, even when you’re not cuffed, I want your hands clasped at your back when my cock is in your mouth and you’re on your knees.”

  She did it without hesitation as he continued to pull her forward by her braids before she slid back slowly. Her breasts swayed as she did this.

  “And I want your eyes.” />
  She dragged her lids up slowly, her gaze slowly clearing and focusing on his.

  He was getting close. He needed to pull back now. But the sweetness of her mouth on him was so hard to resist.

  “You’re irresistible. Ten days without you is no fun.”

  He hadn’t meant to say it but once he had, once he saw the way her eyes lit, he was glad he had.

  “Okay, okay. Enough. I want to be in you. But first…” She pulled off his cock and looked up at him, watching, waiting.

  He drew her into the bedroom and unzipped the bag, bringing out the crop and slicing it through the air to hear that sound. Her eyes widened.

  “I bought this last week. Just been waiting to use it on you. Hands on the bed. Bend at the waist.”

  She didn’t know what to expect. All she knew is that her knees trembled with excitement. And when the first strike came, preceded by the whick of the crop as it split the air on its way to her ass, she wasn’t expecting it to hurt. But it totally did.

  Right before she was about to turn and say no, thank you, nice experiment but I don’t desire more of that, the sting soothed into a slow spread of heat. His cock at her hip was hard and so hot it burned through the thin material of her skirt.

  He liked it. Which made her like it if for no other reason.

  Again. And this time it hurt less, though the vibration of it seemed to echo through her body. Each strike came in a different place on her ass and thighs and she sort of lost track of everything but her hands against the cool material of his bedding and the near rhythmic sound of the crop cutting through the air before it struck.

  He put the crop down nearby and paused to take in the glory of her ass and thighs. In their time together he knew her skin marked easily, so there was a network of welts from the crop. Nothing she’d feel an hour from now. The marks, so apparent right then, would disappear soon enough. He bent to blow over the sting and her skin pebbled.

  He caressed up her legs and she made a soft, sweet sound and that need snapped back into place, straightening his spine as he stood.

  Gently, he pushed her thighs wider and found her wet. So fucking wet. He rolled the condom on and pressed into her slowly, trying to let her adjust around him, trying to catch his breath before he came three seconds after he got inside.

  She was hot around his cock, tight and perfect. The skin of her ass and thighs radiated heat against his body as he stood behind her. But when he pulled back on her braids she stirred, coming up from sub space, taking a deep breath and looking back at him over her shoulder.

  It was right then, he realized, that his thing with Daisy tumbled past becoming serious into something else entirely. She fit him in ways he hadn’t let himself really feel, but now it was unavoidable.

  Orgasm filled his veins, rushing through him as he fucked into her deep and hard. He kept it walled back, needing more, needing to be in her as long as he could be.

  Her back was beautiful. The tattoo glistened with her sweat as he pulled her back to meet his thrusts over and over. The flare of her hips incited him, her skin so soft as he held on. But she wasn’t fragile; she was strong and willful and the way she gave herself to him was a gift. A gift he should have turned down, but couldn’t.

  Her body was a lure, yes, but it was who she was, all the parts of her, body and soul that felled him so utterly.

  “Make yourself come again.”

  She shifted her weight to one hand and reached back with the other. She fluttered and squeezed him as her fingertips met her clit. And then moments later she sucked in a surprised breath as she came all around him.

  And it was more than he could withstand and he followed her, headlong, letting climax take him as he snarled her name.

  Chapter 12

  He sat back and took her in. Candlelight suited her features. She wore the earrings he’d given her earlier in the evening with a dress he’d picked out for her. That was something new, something he hadn’t done before.

  But when she showed up wearing something she knew he’d like, or wearing something he’d told her to wear, it got to him in ways he couldn’t have begun to articulate.

  He’d begun to leave notes telling her which panties to wear, or what blouse. Even if he wouldn’t see her that day, he knew she’d obey. And that got to him.

  “I can’t believe I’ve never eaten here before.” She paused to sip her cocktail.

  “I come here often. It’s not very far from our Seattle office so my older brother and I end up here for dinner at least once a week or so. Business lunches are good here as well.”

  “It’s very old-school steakhouse in here. I love these big booths.”

  He liked them too. He had her all to his self this way, as they were tucked out of sight unless someone was seated across the way from their booth or in that general area.

  She’d done something with her hair, victory rolls she’d called them, and together with the dress and her makeup, she looked like she’d stepped out of a vintage photograph. But with a modern edge.

  “Which brother is this?”

  “Jonah, he’s the oldest.”

  She smiled. “Are you two close?”

  “Yes. There’s only a year between us. So we competed a lot.”

  She laughed. “I bet. If he’s like you, I can only imagine all the taciturn competition. Two alpha males with big giant brains locked in friendly combat. Which sounds like the plot of a book I’d totally read. I’d like to meet him.”

  He took her hand and kissed the palm. She didn’t take him too seriously outside the bedroom. He liked that. Submission in sex was one thing. But he didn’t want a submissive woman in any other way. She poked fun at him and still managed to make him feel like a superhero.

  “We should get the rest of this to go.”

  Her smile changed, deepened, dripped with sensuality and it sent a shiver over him.

  “Levi. Hey.”

  He tore his gaze from her, that filthy fantasy about what he planned to do to her once they got back home dashed with the cold water of reality as he took in the sight of his brother and his new wife.

  Mal looked back and forth between Levi and Daisy, one brow raised. Gwen, on the other hand, stared at Daisy, who sent Levi a look that told him he’d better handle it or she would.

  “Mal. When did you get back?” He and Gwen had gone to Hawaii for a week after the wedding. “You look nice and suntanned.”

  “Just this afternoon.” He turned a genuine smile in Daisy’s direction and held his hand out. “I’m Malachi Warner. Levi’s youngest brother.”

  “Daisy Huerta. Nice to meet you.” She looked around him after they’d finished shaking hands. “Congratulations to you both. Levi tells me you’re newlyweds.”

  Gwen frowned and glared.

  “Stop talking about us as if you know us,” she snapped at Daisy before she rounded on Levi. “Who is this?”

  “You need to lower your voice and remember your manners,” Levi said, attempting not to lose his temper. “This is my date. She told you her name. Rein it in.”

  “Rein what in? Are you her dad or her boyfriend? What sort of example are you setting anyway? You’re a Warner! You don’t take your young little bed friends to dinner in a nice restaurant where anyone can see you. It makes us all look bad.”

  Daisy jerked back. “Excuse me?”

  Gwen turned her gaze to Daisy. “Look, he’s not the marrying type, so if you’re thinking he’ll be a nice shiny cash machine, you’re incorrect.”

  Daisy’s demeanor chilled to icy cold. Her face implacable, her back ramrod straight. She looked like a fucking queen right then. “You’re not only rude, you’re so off base it says far more about me than you. Though your fascination with your brother-in-law’s affairs is quite interesting. Is that why you got married? Because I was raised to take care of myself.”

  Before this devolved any further, he shot a look to Mal. “You need to get this moving elsewhere. Your wife is out of line.”

&n
bsp; Mal put his arm around his wife’s waist and attempted to steer her away.

  “This is an old, established family. You’re not their kind. Look at his choice in wives, why don’t you?”

  Daisy scooted to stand and Levi did as well, quickly inserting himself between them, his back to Gwen. “Let’s go.”

  “Stop acting like you’re going to prevent me from punching her in the face. I’m not the one who needs to chill out.” She looked around Levi’s body. “If by their kind it means I need to be a bigoted bitch, I’m grateful for it.” She grabbed her bag and shoved Levi out of the way, storming from the room.

  “We’ll talk about this later,” he told his brother while tossing down some money. “You’re an ugly bitch sometimes, Gwen.”

  He rushed out to find her crossing the street already. He ran to catch up and she gave him a look that would have sent a lesser man running the other way.

  “I apologize. She’s rude and wrong.” He took her arms in his hands and held her, wanting to say this where she could see his face. “She’s wrong, Daisy.”

  “My god, what the hell?” She kept walking, eating the pavement in long strides even in her sky-high heels. “Is this some sort of time warp back to a movie set in the fifties? I’m not your kind? And what does that mean? Mexican girls needn’t apply to have your precious white babies? Hm? Oh, I get it, her assumption is that because I’m brown that I must be fucking you to trick you into marrying me so I can have your money?”

  All of that was most likely exactly what Gwen had been thinking. But it wasn’t what he thought, damn it.

  “What does it matter? I don’t believe it. Where are you going?”

  “To catch the ferry home. I’m done with this evening.”

  He caught her again. “Why? I’ve said I don’t think the way she does. She’s not my wife, she’s Mal’s wife. I’ll deal with them both another time. I’m sorry you were attacked and offended. But why punish me for someone else’s ignorance?”