The city spilled out before us in a glittery array of lights just beyond the darkness of Central Park. I'd always loved the city at night, and tonight was no different.
Except it wasn't just the city we were looking at.
He stripped my shirt away, then caught my wrists. “Put your hands on the window.”
I did, the glass cool against my palms, while the heat of Arik – the heat of need pulsed everywhere else – inside me, around me, behind me as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to the nape of my neck.
The catch on my bra gave, and I started to lower my hands so he could remove it. I wanted to feel his hands on me so badly that my skin nearly ached.
“Don’t move,” he said.
I froze, my body humming with anticipation.
The straps on my shoulders loosened. Man, multi-way bras…such a blessing, and I hadn’t even considered this one.
I felt bereft when he stopped touching me to neatly fold the bra and put it off to the side. He seemed to take his time before he put his hands back on me again. My nipples throbbed and pulsed, hard little points. The need to have him touching me there was almost too much. When he put his hands on my waist, I arched my spine, instinctively readying myself to push my breasts into his hands.
But when he did touch me, it was to reach for the zipper of my skirt, dragging it down with excruciating slowness. Damn him.
“The bad thing about being here instead of at my place or the club, I have to improvise. No cuffs, no crop.” His fingers tripped up my spine, a teasing sensation that left me shivering. “I don’t want you moving, so you’ll have to restrain yourself. You can’t move until I tell you.”
Flexing my hands against the windows, I dropped my head. “And what if I do?”
Arik brought his hand down on my ass with a sharp crack. “I just might not fuck you.”
Keening low in my throat, I bit my inner cheek. I didn't think he'd actually do it. Or rather, not do it. His need was as obvious as my own. But I could never tell with him. He might choose to spend the rest of the night teasing me.
“That got your attention, didn’t it?”
“Bastard.” Squeezing my eyes closed, I reached deep inside for all the control I could muster. Fortunately, I had a decent amount.
He spanked me again, the heat spreading across my skin. “Call me names and maybe I won’t fuck you anyway. Maybe I'll just get myself off, leave you...wanting.”
Groaning, I tucked my head against the crook of my arm. “Arik, please...”
“Say you’re sorry. Maybe I’ll forgive you, Dena.” Despite his words, his tone was gently teasing.
“I’m sorry,” I said immediately.
“Want to make it up to me?” His voice dropped.
“Yes.” What I actually wanted was to feel him inside me, and these hot, crazy games were almost more than I could handle tonight.
He skimmed a finger along the crevice of my ass. “Just how far are you willing to go to make it up to me, Dena?”
Anything. Just as long as he'd fuck me. “Whatever you want.”
When he stopped touching me, my knees started to quake but that was nothing compared to what happened when he buried his hand in my hair, pulling me away from the mirror, forcing my body upright.
“I’m going to tell you something, Dena...I lied. I’m not entirely unprepared.”
He kept me like that, one hand in my hair while the other reached down between us.
When I felt the lube-slicked finger probing between the cheeks of my ass, the air I had in my lungs came out in a rush.
Oh, fuck.
He bit my ear, and then said, “I’m going to fuck your ass, good and hard. You’re going to moan. You’re going to scream. You’re going to come. And later, if you’re a good girl, I’ll clean you up and fuck you again.”
I gasped as he pushed two fingers inside me at once. My legs shook as pain and pleasure coursed through me. My clit throbbed even as he worked his fingers deeper.
There was a hard edge to Arik’s hunger tonight, a deep, insatiable sort of need, and it washed over me, battering at me like waves against the beach. When he spread his fingers inside me and then twisted, I whimpered, arching a little as I fought to accommodate the penetration that would prepare me for an even deeper one. Usually, I would've wanted him to start with one, then work his way up to two, but another part of me wanted it like this.
The ache spread, my clitoris pulsing and I lowered my hand, needing to relieve the tension.
Arik bit my shoulder, hard enough to draw my attention momentarily. “Don’t,” he warned.
I whimpered. “Arik, please…”
He spanked me this time, hard, and without his steadying hand at my hip, I twisted on the fingers that invaded me.
“Be still and don’t move, or I won’t fuck this sweet ass, Dena.”
I didn't prefer anal sex, but there were times when I wanted the intensity of it. Right now, I needed him inside me, and I didn't particularly care where.
Curling my hands into fists, I braced myself on the window, and told myself not to move again. I even managed to keep that promise, right up until he removed his fingers and started to work his dick into me instead.
Despite his preparations, it wasn't easy. My ass burned as he kept up the slow, steady pressure, forcing himself inside. I rose up on my toes this time, twisting my spine although I don’t know if I was trying to take him deeper or if I was trying to escape.
Arik went still. “Do you want me to stop?”
I shook my head, my breathing harsh. “No. Please, please...please don’t, Arik.”
He smoothed one hand over the slight curve of my hip. “Convince me. Tell me what you want me to do, Dena.”
“I want you to fuck me, Arik.” Heat sizzled and burned through me even as some part of me wondered at how easily he drew submission from me. “I want to feel your cock in my ass.”
He put his mouth against my ear. “Are you going to be still for me?”
Whimpering, I whispered, “I’m going to try.”
Inside me, he pulsed and I was excruciatingly aware of every inch of him, both what was inside, and what was still to come.
“You better try very hard, baby.”
Then he began to move again, slow, pushing his cock into me in increments that seemed to take forever. My entire body was quivering, shaking. It was pure torture. Then, just when I thought he was almost ready to stop the torment, he would withdraw, and I had to bite my lip to keep from screaming.
But this was what I wanted. Why I wanted him. I knew I could give myself to him and he'd not only take it, he'd give me what I needed. He'd protect me.
When he was finally completely seated inside me, a harsh, shuddering moan escaped my throat, and I would have sagged if he hadn’t steadied me with an arm around my waist. He rolled his hips, withdrawing just enough to have me tensing up, and then he filled me again.
“I love taking you like this,” he said against my ear. “You grab at my dick and you squeeze it so tight...it’s like you can’t decide if you love it or not. Tell me, Dena. Do you love it?”
“Yes.” Forgetting yet again that he didn’t want me moving, I reached up and caught the back of his neck. “I love it...I love you, Arik.”
He went rigid and I froze. I hadn't meant to say it like that, but it was the truth. A moment later, he pulled out of me altogether, and I sucked in a breath. One that carried pain, shock and disappointment.
He spun me around to face him, one hand coming up to cup my chin.
“What?” he demanded.
“I...” Blinking, a little dazed, I stared at him. I didn't understand what was happening.
He kissed me roughly, his teeth sinking into my lower lip. “What did you say?”
Oh, that.
“I...” Breath coming raggedly now, I met his eyes as he looked at me.
Shit. I'd never said those words to a guy. I'd never met anyone who I'd wanted to say those words to before. I'd c
ome close, but what I'd felt on those few occasions was nothing like what I felt for him.
I might've been terrified, but I wasn't a coward.
“I said I love you.”
“Dena...”
He kissed me again, and this time, it was soft and sweet.
My head was spinning when he picked me up, and then it seemed like the whole world was as he carried me into the bathroom.
“What...” The question was smothered under another kiss, and when he broke away, he was setting me on my feet, the tile cold under my soles.
The bathroom was gorgeous, large enough that half my living room could have fit in here and the sunken tub made me want to climb inside it and lounge around for maybe a week.
“What are we doing in here?” I asked, completely confused.
“I’m going to shower. You are too.”
His voice had an odd note to it. Feeling a little off balance, I stared up at him. “Um…why?”
He backed me up to the clear glass wall that separated the shower from the rest of the bathroom.
“Because,” he said, kissing me again. Another soft, slow kiss, one that smoldered rather than exploded. “I’m going to make love to you. In that bed. Where I can see your face, and then you’re going to say those words to me again. I’m going to have that soft, sweet pussy wrapped around me when you say it. That means...we have to shower.”
“Oh.” I couldn't manage anything else.
Dazed now, I let him guide me into the shower, let him nudge me under the water. It criss-crossed out from all corners, pounding at my body and hitting muscles that were so tense, I’d forgotten just how tense they were. How this whole thing had stretched me thin and tight.
Arik had shown me any number of faces: the sharp lawyer, the wicked lover, the playful lock-pick, the sinful, sexy seducer.
But now he was showing me another side, a side that seemed almost...unsettled, by what I said. But he hadn't run away, hadn't told me that he didn't feel the same way. Instead, he washed me, dried me, and I was little more than putty when he scooped me up into his arms and carried me out of the bathroom. He’d dried me in the stall, murmuring in my ear that he didn’t want me getting cold.
I couldn’t even fathom being cold, not now. With the downy softness of the mattress under me and the hard, hot length of him above me, the only thing I could really fathom was him.
He pressed kiss after kiss to my mouth, my neck, my breasts.
Every time I tried to draw him down to me, he’d come, but only for a moment, only until a series of teasing kisses had my hands limp and lax against his shoulder, and I forgot how to do anything more complicated than breathing and moaning.
Then he caught my hands and pinned them above my head. His eyes locked with mine as he settled between my legs.
“Tell me again, Dena,” he said against my lips as he thrust inside me.
I cried out, arching up against him. My climax was so close, it was almost painful. I stared up at him, my hips rising to meet his. It was as though nothing else existed.
Just him. Just me. Just us.
“Tell me,” he ordered.
I couldn't deny him. “I love you.”
He caught me in his arms and rolled, shifting our positions. I moaned as it drove him deeper, higher inside me. Hands braced on his chest, I let my head fall back as I rolled my hips against his. Fuck, that felt good.
“Arik…”
“Look at me.” His hands tightened on my hips, and the command in his voice managed to cut through the fog in my head.
Forcing my lashes up, I met his eyes. He looked up at me, the vivid emerald color of his gaze searing me.
“I love you, Dena.”
The climax slammed into me, hitting me with almost as much force as his words.
Almost.
But not quite.
“Say it again.”
Chapter 10
Dena
“You look beautiful.”
Looking into the mirror, I saw Arik standing in the doorway and grinned at him. “You better close the door. Seriously, Arik. Gavin was teasing Carrie about how he wasn’t going to wait until the ceremony before he saw her today, and she’s panicking because she thinks he meant it.”
It was the middle of June, and in just over an hour, Carrie would be marrying Gavin.
I had a feeling Gavin’s teasing had been meant as a distraction so she wouldn’t panic about all the small, inconsequential details. Except, now she was panicking over her soon-to-be-husband jinxing their wedding by catching a look of her in her wedding dress before the ceremony.
Krissy was going to beat the shit out of him. Sometimes men were just clueless.
Arik slid inside and shut the door behind him. He came to me and bent down, just barely grazing my lips with a kiss before straightening up and looking around. His eyes landed on Krissy and DeVon. He smiled at me.
“Seems like I’m not the only one who couldn’t wait to see his woman.”
There was a bit of sadness to that smile, and we both knew why. It was the same reason why DeVon was in here, and it wasn't simply because he couldn't bear to be away from her.
He wasn’t exactly hovering over her – Krissy would never allow that – but he was staying close. My heart ached more than a little for them both.
“How is she?” Arik moved in closer and pitched his voice low so no one else could hear.
Looking up at him, I shrugged and managed a smile. “I couldn’t say. I’ve never been where she is. She seems to be holding it together pretty well. Losing the baby…”
I swallowed and turned back to the mirror, staring hard at my reflection. If I thought too hard about it, I’d get teary and if I cried today, I’d rather it be over happy things. Happy.
“You know,” Arik said as he put his hand on my shoulder. “I’ve been thinking.”
“Today is not a day for thinking.” Slanting a look up at him, I made a face before leaning forward to study my reflection. I was still wearing my robe, but my make-up and hair were done. Those were the two big things. The dress was the easy thing, for me at least. Carrie had gone with a simple, strapless style that flattered all of us.
Carrie's dress, however, wasn't simple. She had a designer confection that would take several people to help her get into.
If I ever got married, I think I wanted to do a beach wedding. Something where I could wear a simple little white dress and no shoes. Well, considering the height difference, maybe shoes wouldn't be a bad idea, at least for the ceremony...
“Regardless, I have been thinking—”
The door swung open and a harried looking guy in a bad suit came in. His eyes narrowed when he saw Arik and DeVon.
“You two. Out. We want some shots of the bridal party getting ready and you two can’t be in here for those.”
Arik open his mouth to say something, but I leaned in, caught his hand. “This is what Carrie wants. Please, baby.”
He blew out a breath, then nodded. Before he turned, he added, “We still need to talk.”
“It can wait.” Rolling my eyes at his back, I focused on the mirror once more. Pictures of the bridal party getting ready. “What is the deal with that anyway?” I muttered. “We sit around powdering our noses?”
A few feet away, Krissy laughed and the sound made my heart lighten. “Sure. Powder our noses, give each other manicures, maybe have a pillow fight.”
I shot her a look and she rolled her eyes. “I think this is something they like doing, coming in hoping we’re half-naked.”
“Oh, please.”
***
It took Arik nearly an hour to fight his way back inside. And fight was pretty close to the right word.
There was a woman at the door, one of Carrie’s relatives. She'd planted her statuesque frame there, and was practically doing background checks before she let anybody in once the photographers left.
Even they tried to come back in, but Carrie sent them away, saying she’d rather hold
off on the rest of the pictures until she actually looked like a bride.
I'd had to laugh at that.
Now, though…well, she looked like a bride and I found myself getting a little sniffly. At least this time, it was for a good reason.
Carrie didn’t seem to be getting overly emotional just yet, and she proved it by shouting out, “Aunt Ida, it’s Dena’s date you’re arguing with. He can come back if he wants. I don’t think it’s considered bad luck for him to see me. I doubt he’s got Gavin hiding in his suit.” Then she muttered under her breath, “Though I wouldn't put it past the bastard to try.”
Krissy, Leslie and I shared a grin.
Carrie rolled her eyes at us in the mirror and went back to sitting like a statue as the hairdresser did last minute fixes on her already perfect hair.
“It’s a good thing we go out there in the next few minutes,” Leslie said, rolling her eyes. “That woman might try to flat-iron and twist her hair out of existence if we stayed back here much longer.”
“That’s why I advocate short hair,” I responded to her, but my attention was on Arik as he cut around flowers and everything else in the room.
He came to a stop in front of me, halting maybe five feet away. “I know it’s supposed to be the bride’s day, but I think the most beautiful woman is standing in front of me.”
“I heard that!” Carrie called out, branding an eyelash curler.
“Technically, Carrie, all of you are standing in front of me,” Arik replied without taking his eyes off of me.
“Don’t be a lawyer today.” Carrie made a harrumphing sound under her breath, but I heard the smile.
“Her mother will be rushing us out soon,” I told him, gesturing to the dry-erase board that had the schedule written out on it.
Carrie’s mom was like a drill sergeant. I was slightly in awe...and a little scared. I was pretty sure Gavin felt the same way.
“That’s fine.” He held out a hand. “Five minutes.”
“What’s the hurry?” As he folded his fingers around mine, I let him guide me to the corner, but when he would have kissed me, I turned away. “I don’t believe in kiss-proof lipstick, pal.”
Unlawful Attraction: The Complete Box Set: Alpha Billionaire Romance Page 33