“I spent hours mapping out your body under those skirts and blouses. I thought of all kinds of ways I could take you on that desk of yours, but before I did, I wanted to take my time, spend those same hours exploring with my hands and mouth so I know every single inch of you.”
The way he said it so casually, so matter-of-factly, as if he meant every word, that it was his intention, sent flames licking over her skin and rushing through her veins. He didn’t change his tone from that low voice he used. He didn’t take his gaze from her.
“Eat your sandwich, baby. You’re going to need your strength.”
“I am?” She picked up the sandwich she’d abandoned when she’d stripped off her shirt.
“You are.” He said that very decisively.
SIX
Scarlet Foley truly had a beautiful body, even more so than he first had thought—and he’d been obsessing over her for nearly two months now. Night and day. Absinthe had had no idea her breasts were as full as they were, or as high or as round. Her nipples jutted out, perfect for play. Her rib cage was narrow and her waist even more so. She was fit. Really physically fit. He could see the play of muscles beneath her soft skin with every movement of her body. She might have more than generous breasts and hips, but she was totally fit. He could spend all day looking at her.
She wanted him. He was Torpedo Ink, a man trained from childhood to know all the signs, but he didn’t want to rush this. She was too important to him. He didn’t want to turn what they had growing between them into something solely sexual. She was caught between the desire to make their relationship that, hoping they’d burn out fast, or, like him, wanting it to be the real thing but not quite believing it could be.
He was still trying to figure her out. She definitely wanted him. All the signs were there. Long before they’d even touched in the library, he had known she returned his interest. Their chemistry had grown, and they’d only looked at each other. It kept growing until he swore it was becoming a wildfire burning out of control. He couldn’t imagine what it was going to be like when they actually fucked.
She was confident in herself as a rule, but her hands trembled, and sometimes her gaze shifted away from his, almost shyly, which didn’t make sense. He’d waited, hoping she would make the first move because he didn’t want to spook her. For all he knew, she might whip out the knife or gun he knew she was carrying in her boot and kill him, but she hadn’t made even a small move toward him, even when he knew she wanted to. He hadn’t asked her to remove her boots because he wanted her to continue to feel safe with him.
Absinthe had taken a chance, and because he was a man who took charge, he did so. She responded immediately, which not only surprised him, it shocked him. He had to think that over. He didn’t mind looking at her while he contemplated whether he was going to take any more chances with her. He didn’t want to blow the progress he’d made with her so far. The more time he spent with her, the more he was absolutely certain he was right that she was perfect for him. He had been careful not to use the advantage of his voice or his touch on her. He’d been more than careful. More than anything else, he needed to know that their relationship was real, and she wanted it as much as he did.
When she finished the sandwich and had taken a sip of water, he crooked his finger at her. “Come over here and let me kiss you. I’ve wanted to kiss you since the first time I laid eyes on you.” He deliberately didn’t ask. He didn’t use his voice. He didn’t make it a command. But he didn’t ask.
Scarlet sat facing him, about three feet away, tailor fashion. She unfolded her legs and, to his astonishment and absolute excitement, put her hands on the blanket in front of her so she was on her hands and knees. Her breasts, framed in that amazing lace bra, swayed as she crawled toward him. He could see her nipples with every movement. They peaked even more, showing him that she was excited, liking what she was doing. Her breathing had turned ragged. His cock went to pure steel—maybe moved past steel to straight titanium. She was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen.
He reached down and unbuckled his belt and unzipped his jeans. “Sorry, baby, got no choice. Don’t want to damage the important parts here.” The monster could breathe a little and the relief was tremendous.
He half expected her to pull back, but she didn’t. Instead, she shifted her angle of crawling so that she moved right up over the top of him, coming over his heavy erection, her breasts dragging over his cock and up his chest before she put her mouth on his. The moment her nipples and breasts made contact with his actual skin, images rushed into his brain—all erotic—moving from her head to his. In spite of her very real trepidation, she wanted him in every way. Every way. Fuck. He wasn’t certain he could control himself with the way he had to handle both their desires. He knew she would be feeling his as well, feeding her own.
He licked at her lips, tasting her, his hands at the back of her bra. It was easy enough to release her breasts, and again, she didn’t stop him, although he gave her the opportunity before he took her mouth. She tasted hotter than he expected. They both ignited the moment his tongue slid into her mouth. It was as if he’d touched flame to dynamite. There was no going back from it. Sensations rushed over him. He felt as if a blaze arced over his skin to hers and back again. He wanted her clothes gone. He wanted his gloves gone. He wanted to feel every single inch of her body. It was frustrating for her to wear gloves.
He pulled back. “Get them off.”
Her eyes looked as dazed as he felt. “What? What? Tell me what.”
“Everything. Boots. Jeans. The fucking gloves. I want your hands on me. I want your mouth on me. I want to do the same to you.”
She blinked rapidly, and he could see awareness, fear, creeping back in. He caught the nape of her neck and kissed her again. And again. Deep. Hot. Over and over. So fucking hot they were both going to burn in hell.
“Get. Them. Off.” He could barely growl the words. Like a graceful cat she moved back and unzipped her boots and carefully placed them to one side. He caught a glimpse of the neatly built-in compartments for weapons he already knew were there. He lifted his gaze to the trees around him and then nodded, indicating the boots once. That was all the time he could spare, the only clue his mind was capable in that moment of giving to his brothers that her weapons were close.
She removed her jeans and panties as he dragged off his boots and jeans. His gloves were the last items he removed. She did the same, but when she did, her gaze was fastened on his face, as if that was the only thing that could keep her from bolting. They remained like that, staring into each other’s eyes. He realized she was looking again for direction.
“We’re good, Scarlet. Come here, ledi, and kiss me again. Let’s see how this works for us when we’re touching each other. We might really find ourselves burning down the fucking forest.” Again, he was careful not to use the influence of his voice. He kept the tone low, velvet soft the way she liked, but not commanding and not the way he needed sometimes. He didn’t need that now. He needed Scarlet’s compliance. He needed this particular woman to want to be with him.
She crawled over the top of him, and again, he could see trepidation in her eyes as her gaze clung to his, but she didn’t hesitate. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. He bunched all that red silk in one fist as her breasts slid over his bare chest, her nipples dragging over his scars and tattoos and he took her mouth. Immediately the flames erupted, even hotter than before. This time, he dared to slide his free hand down the curve of her spine, to take in the satin of her skin. He was immediately immersed in heat. In wild need. In desperate hope. In sensual anxieties.
As she moved over him, his cock grew even heavier, jerking with urgent demand, feeling the heat of her feminine build, that sweet mixture of soft skin and firm muscles sliding temptingly over it as she crawled over him. Her hands smoothed his shoulders as her mouth moved under his, spreading the flames, hotter than Hades, plunging them both deeper into a sinful mire of pure sensation. Her body slo
wly settled over his, and for the first time that he could ever remember, he wasn’t receiving any images other than the overriding purely erotic ones burning through Scarlet’s brain.
He was taller than she was by quite a lot and he had a reach on her. He could slide his hand all the way down her spine to the curve of her cheeks. He kneaded the exquisite flesh there. She had a beautiful ass. Perfect for him. For his needs. She had that sensual feline crawl that could make his cock so fucking hard he could barely breathe. She had beautiful breasts. She was so perfect for him in every way. Her mouth was hotter than sin and her body even hotter. That didn’t even begin to describe what he loved about her.
He rolled her over, trapping her under him, his first aggressive move, but he made certain he rolled her toward her boots, so she would feel she could reach out and snag a weapon if she felt at all threatened. He framed her face between his hands and took her mouth, not giving her a chance to cool down. He loved that mouth of hers.
She was so receptive, following his lead, making her own demands, chasing after him when he started to pull back, her hands in his hair, tugging and then stroking long caresses down his back. Several times he felt the bite of her nails as she dug her fingers into his shoulders to hang on just from their wicked kisses spiraling out of control.
He reluctantly left that perfect mouth just so he could take a bite out of her lower lip. He’d fixated on her pouty lip often in the library, thinking of the way he wanted to leave his mark there. He’d often sat right at the table, looking over the top of a book, fantasizing about sliding his cock over that pouty lip and imagining the way her lips would look stretched around his girth.
His teeth locked gently on her lower lip and he bit down and drew her lip toward him, his eyes looking directly into hers. Those green eyes of hers went wide, but she didn’t look away. The green swirled with more heat, grew even darker with lust and excitement. His heart reacted, pounding right through his cock. He let go of her lip, and then licked at the mark he’d made.
“I sat at that table so many times watching you at your desk and all I could think about was your mouth and this lower lip. Just kissing you like this. Biting your lip. Walking right up to you, unzipping my jeans, bunching all that red silk in my hands and demanding you do something to relieve the ache you put in my fuckin’ cock. Sometimes I was so hard I wasn’t sure I could walk straight.”
Her tongue touched her bottom lip right over his mark. “I wish you could have done that. I would have liked it. After hours, of course.”
“Your desk is large and when you wear that one long skirt, the ruffle one that drops to the floor, I thought I should just crawl under there and pull your panties down and see how long it takes before you’re screaming for mercy.” He kissed his way down to her chin. He was very fond of her chin. “I’m not a merciful man.”
Her eyes went wide, and her lips parted but no sound came out.
His teeth nipped before he continued kissing her throat, finding her pulse there and lingering for a few more heartbeats.
“Your skin is fucking amazing, Scarlet.” It was. So damn soft. His cock stayed nestled in the cradle of her hips and felt like he’d found a home there. His body wanted to stay stretched over hers, that smooth satiny-silk bed he claimed for his own.
To actually be with a woman and have his body react naturally to her was a miracle. To want her with his brain, to feel the way he did about her was even more than a miracle. He kissed his way over her pounding pulse, feeling the answer in his heart, rushing through his veins, through his blood, pooling in his cock.
“Love this feeling, literaturnaya ledi.” He murmured it against the top of the curve of her left breast. That lovely curve. He kissed his way over it and then the right one.
“What feeling?” she whispered. Her arms slid around him. Holding him to her.
“That you belong to me. That you’re giving me you. I want you to belong to me. Not just for now, Scarlet. I want us to have a future together.” He kissed her right nipple and then her left, his tongue curling around the hard pebble.
Her body shuddered in response. He felt the answering reaction in her mind to his statement. She wanted the same thing. She wanted a future with him, but she feared it. She didn’t trust yet that he meant it, but she wanted to. Something in her especially reacted to belonging to him. She didn’t just want, but needed to feel as if she was his. He picked that easily out of her head as he swept his hands under her breasts, cupping them possessively.
“I want these breasts to be only for me.” He took her nipple in his mouth and sucked and then bit down gently, pulled and tugged and then sucked her breast into the heat of his mouth while he kneaded her other breast. “I like to play, baby. A lot. And you have the perfect breasts for it. Very responsive. But they’re mine. For me.” He tugged and rolled her nipples, pinching and then using his tongue to soothe her.
Scarlet gasped and arched her back, thrusting upward, pressing herself into him with a little startled cry. Pleasure burst through her mind, through his. She liked not only what he was doing, but what he was saying.
“I don’t share well with others,” he murmured, licking at her nipple again. “I’m demanding in bed, baby. I’m not going to lie about that, but I’d be damned pissed if you ran around on me.” He wanted her to know the truth of who he was, but he was also feeling his way with her. He needed to know what was in her mind. “I don’t cheat. I don’t tolerate my woman cheating.” He worded that one a little more harshly, punctuating each word with either his teeth or his tongue.
Scarlet by turns gasped, squirmed, bucked her hips or cried out. He switched his attention to her left breast.
“My mark looks so fucking sexy on you, ledi.” He kissed his way around her breast and then under it, down her belly to her ribs, his hands on either side of her waist. God, she was small in comparison to him. His fingers, spread wide, could just about take in her entire belly.
He nipped the skin just below her belly button and then swirled his tongue over the sting. Lifting his head, he waited until her green eyes met his. She looked partially dazed, but he had her attention. “I need an answer before we keep going, baby. You with me so far? We on the same page? Looking toward a future? No cheating. Either one of us? Exclusive all the way.”
His palms lay flat on her stomach, fingers spread wide to take her in, to feel everything she was feeling. Immediately chaos erupted in her mind, so many emotions. Most were sensual; desire and pleasure were uppermost. Scarlet wanted to please him. She would do whatever he demanded of her. They were alone and she didn’t fear anything he would ask. She wanted it all with him now because she was afraid she wouldn’t have this opportunity with him again. There was still the fear that he might turn out to be someone really bad. There was also a fear for him. Her emotions were very jumbled.
He pressed a kiss into her belly button, still holding her gaze. “I wish you could see into my mind, Scarlet,” he murmured gently, allowing just a little of his mind to open to her so that she could see past the highly aroused feelings he had in that moment. “I’m not the nicest of men, not always. I’d hunt down whoever hurt you so much that you’re afraid to trust me and I’d probably fuck him up pretty bad or worse, but I can promise you, I would never intentionally hurt you. You would see that. You would see that I mean everything I say to you. Say yes to trying with me, baby. Give us that much of a chance.”
Again, he was careful not to push any influence into his voice, even though resisting the temptation was extremely difficult. He knew Scarlet Foley was made for him and he for her. He felt it with every breath he drew and every moment they were together. He did use persuasion with his gentle, velvet command he knew she had a hard time resisting, but he held back on using his talent, that gift that could take control even though she was the one. He knew it now more than ever, just glimpsing into her mind.
Her hands smoothed his shoulders and he saw the capitulation in the brilliant green of her eyes before she b
it her lip and nodded. “Yes. I want those same things, Absinthe.”
The smile might have started in his damn cock—hell, he didn’t know, only that it spread through his body like a wildfire, culminating in an impossible-to-hold-back grin. He kissed her stomach, those very firm muscles already moving under his touch in eagerness, as he made his way to the very edge of those fiery red curls proclaiming her a natural redhead.
Very slowly, so she would feel the anticipation, he slid his hands over her hips, shaping that curve, the hollows, the sweet beauty of her feminine form. Absinthe took his time with her, paying attention to every little hitch of her breath. He was by turns gentle and then abruptly a little rough, watching her closely for signs of nervousness. Scarlet’s hips bucked, her back arched, her breasts swayed and jolted as she squirmed and moaned, but she didn’t ask him to stop or reach toward her weapons.
“Spread your legs wide for me, Scarlet, and put them over my shoulders.”
Scarlet’s green gaze jumped once more to his face, went so dark and vivid, she could have been born of the mythical fae right there in the redwood forest. Her ragged breathing turned up another notch as she slowly spread her thighs even farther apart, exposing her beautiful little pink pussy to him. Shit. She looked like a little flower, glistening with dew, just waiting for his attention.
She slowly lifted her legs and obediently draped them over his wide shoulders. His breath caught in his throat. She smelled like heaven. She looked like paradise. She did what he told her, exactly what he needed from his woman. Her red hair was slipping out of her braid with all the wind from the ride on the Harley and it spread out around her like a halo. She was gorgeous. She felt like his. She acted like his.
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